Lyrics of Sorrow: Assault
by LoneWolf218
Summary: The Book of Darkness: an object that even the Bureau fears. Now, this black tome and its deadly knights have appeared on an Earth where most still believe they are alone in existence. But as the heroes of light and darkness gather and prepare to do battle… it may be that not all is as it appears to be.
1. A Rising Storm

**Lyrics of Sorrow: Assault**

By Lonewolf218

_Disclaimer: I do not own Castlevania or Nanoha: A's, please do not sue._

Chapter 1: A Rising Storm

The city of Tokyo is widely considered one of the greatest cities of the modern world. A central hub of technology and culture, it is home to almost fifteen million people, and thus even in the dark of night it is a whirl of activity.

Of course, when you're trapped inside a strange barrier that seems to have erased all those millions of people from existence, you're likely to have bigger problems than trying to figure out what had happened; especially when you're being chased by a blur of red with a hammer.

Tadao Nagano panted as he dodged another explosion from the perusing blur, ducking into another empty building. "Damndamndamndamn_damn!_" he hissed, sprinting and slamming through a door in the back of the dark, empty café just as the window behind him shattered, announcing his relentless hunter's entrance. "Who the hell is this guy?!"

A week ago, Tadao and one of his coworkers at the Special Investigation Division had been assigned a new task: to investigate a series of attacks that had been occurring throughout Japan. When he'd started working on the job, he'd never imagined that he'd get a first-hand look at what had happened to those people, but more and more he was becoming convinced that that was what was happening.

He had just gotten off the bus and been making his way towards the apartment building he called home, minding his own business, when a wave of strange… stuff swept towards him. Being magically inclined, he'd instantly recognized its nature, but before he could even think to defend himself it had flashed past. At first, he had thought it hadn't done anything, but then he looked around he realized there were no people, all the lights were off, and the formerly bustling city of his birth was a creepy ghost town out of a horror movie.

Then, of course, the blur of red had fallen from the sky. Tadao was one of the better trained battle practitioners at the SID, so rather than being flattened outright he was able to throw himself into a sideways roll and bring up a shield to protect himself from the worst of the debris as the attacker slammed into the ground hard enough to crater it. Still, the suddenness and power of the attack placed the threat as well beyond what he was comfortable with facing alone. Therefore, he hadn't bothered asking questions and had started running.

Cursing again, he slipped through another door at the back of the cafe, slamming it closed and using his magic to yank a nearby trash bin over to block the door, at least for a moment. Then, as he started running again, he yanked out his phone. He didn't imagine that he'd be able to call for help; if the strange barrier could prevent people from seeing all this it likely could stop phone calls, he wanted to make a record… in case he didn't remember or didn't survive the attack.

"This is Tadao Nagano," he hissed as he kept running. "I am under attack by an unknown assailant, believed to be involved in the case I am working. If anyone from the Division finds this recording, be advised that..."

The rest of Tadao's desperate report was cut off as one of the attacker's homing bullets slammed into him, his suit's defenses barely enough to keep it from breaking bones. Still, he was knocked into another of the trashcans that lined the dirty alley he was running down. Before he could climb to his feet, the red blur arrived, and he finally got a good look at his pursuer.

"A… little girl?" he gasped, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. The child was short and wore a frilly red dress with a black hem, a few shades darker than her orange-red hair. She also wore a hat, the same deep red as her dress, with a disturbing motif of a rabbit with crossed out eyes sewn on one side. In one hand, she carried a futuristic-looking croquet mallet with a spike on the end, which she raised to point at him.

"Give it up," she snarled, her tone not childlike at all. "Just close your eyes and I'll make this quick."

Humans, like all other living creatures on the Earth, had a fight or flight reflex. Tadao had been following the latter part of that reflex since the moment the girl had first arrived, but now that he realized he wouldn't be able to outrun her, the first part took precedent. He may not have been as powerful as some people he knew of, but he _was_ a trained magical combatant.

Thrusting a hand forward, he launched a ray of brilliant light at his attacker. Her blue eyes widened, clearly not expecting him to still have the strength or courage to resist, and her dodge was a half second too slow. The attack, which should have hit her in the head and knocked her out, only clipped her right temple as she jerked to the left, knocking the hat off her head and into an open bin. Tadao used the distraction to roll to his feet and prepare another shield, waiting for the inevitable counterattack.

A long, tense silence filled the air as the girl stared in stunned horror at the hat, which was smoking slightly as it lay atop a trash heap. Slowly, however, she turned towards him, and Tadao recoiled at the look of hate in her eyes.

Before, whatever reason she might have had for attacking him had been business. Now, however, it was _personal_.

"GRAF EISEN!" she shrieked, raising her mallet.

"**Raketenform!**" a mechanical voice said as the small sphere that connected the two heads of the mallet flashed. Before Tadao could come to terms with the fact that the hammer had just spoken, the portion just below the hammer's heads opened up, and a sharp explosion ejected something that looked like a bullet casing, which smoked as it clattered to the ground against a nearby wall.

Most of Tadao's attention, however, was fixed on the hammer itself. Red light flared over its head, lengthening and sharpening one end while widening the other. As the light cleared in a blinding flash, the former mallet was replaced on one side with a sharp, golden spike, and the other seemed to have some sort of engine, which lit a moment later. Stumbling back, Tadao threw everything he had into his shield as the furious girl rocketed forward, murder in her eyes.

For all the good his defense did, he might as well have held up a sheet of tissue paper.

He expected the spike to drive itself into his chest as it smashed through his shield, rending flesh and shattering bone as it killed him. However, instead all it did was launch him backwards into the wall hard enough to see stars.

After that, everything was fuzzy. He distantly noticed the girl rushing over and grabbing the hat, dusting it off and somehow repairing the bit of damage he had done before putting it carefully back on her head. After that, she returned to stand over him. Glancing down, she saw the phone he had dropped and snorted before lifting one booted foot and bringing her heel down on the device, thoroughly grinding the delicate electronics into the concrete.

The last thing Tadao saw before he finally blacked out was some sort of book appearing from the darkness over her raised hand.

* * *

Nine hours later, as the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, a peaceful stillness existed around he Hakuba Shrine that rested in the hills above the city. Most of the residents were just beginning to stir to wakefulness, and thus wouldn't be up for some time yet. However, two people were already fully awake and waiting at the gate.

The first huffed, tapping her foot on the path. "He's late again," she muttered. At first glance, she appeared to be an average young girl; visibly unique only for her relatively long, bright orange-brown hair in a country where black was the norm. However, a closer look would reveal that some of that orange was not actually hair, but a pair of wolf ears. A moment later, she shifted her weight as she put her hands on her hips, swishing a fluffy orange tail.

Laughing quietly, the other girl reached out and scratched her dear friend behind the ear. "You're so impatient, Arf," she giggled, her striking red eyes flashing with warm mirth as she used her other hand to brush a lock of blonde hair, long enough to reach to her waist, out of her face. "He'll be here."

"He'd better be." Arf snorted, though a smile crossed her face as she leaned into the other girl's scratching. "You'd think he'd be more punctual, though."

Before the blonde could answer, the air not far outside the gate shifted, a swirling pool of darkness forming. A few seconds later, a tall figure stepped out, his white coat and hair waving in the wind of his teleportation. After a moment of reorienting himself, he smiled and made his way over. "Fate, Arf," he said, "how are you doing this morning?"

Arf rolled her eyes. "You're late again, Soma," she said.

Soma laughed. "I'm so glad you're well," he said, slipping through the gate and into the shrine proper, suppressing a slight shudder as the wards once more reminded him that, while they would still let him in, they didn't like him in the slightest. "How about you, Fate?"

The girl smiled warmly. "I'm doing well, thank you," she said.

Soma smiled back. Fate had thrived over the past six months of living with the Hakubas. Gone was the constantly nervous girl, desperate to earn affection from someone who hated everything about her. She was still quiet, but she _smiled_ now. "That's great," Soma said. "So, are you ready to begin?"

"Yeah!" the two girls said, falling into step with Soma as he made his way into the shrine's garden.

Although both Fate and Nanoha were free to live peaceful lives now, neither of them had wanted to give up their magic. For Nanoha, it was a reminder of all the good that could be done when someone followed their dreams and refused to surrender to despair. It held similar meaning for Fate, but privately Soma thought the biggest reason that she dedicated herself to it so much was because she knew how much magic meant to Nanoha, and she didn't want to be left behind by the brunette.

Arikado had agreed that, rather than attempting to stop the girls from learning or leaving them to fumble on their own, they should have a real education, and Soma and Yoko had been happy to agree. Thus, on days where the various requirements of school, work, and general life allowed, the older practitioners would meet with the girls and help them hone their natural talent. Because of the fact that she lived with the Hakubas, Soma had found himself gravitating more towards training Fate; though he would still visit Nanoha when he could.

Soma shook himself slightly as the trio arrived at the courtyard that they used for the training, and Soma reached into his bigger-on-the-inside pocket to pull out the main tools for the day's lesson: a hundred tennis balls in containers. "You remember what we were talking about last time, right?" he asked as he set the containers on the ground in the center of the courtyard.

The two girls nodded and Fate answered. "You were discussing the importance of absolute spatial awareness while casting magic," she said. "How it can not only help you during battle: to avoid hitting friends, but also pick out unexpected enemy reinforcements. Besides, in everyday life, it can avoid embarrassing collisions."

"Very good," Soma said, fishing four final objects out of his pocket: a pair of thick black strips of cloth and two sets of earmuffs. "Now, here is how this is going to work. You're going to put these on, both of you, and stand here in the center of the courtyard." The two girls quickly moved forward and took the offered items. "I'll be teleporting around the area. You'll be able to detect me by my magic, and you'll take those tennis balls and throw them at me as soon as I appear."

Arf nodded and bared her teeth. "Seems simple enough," she said. "Let's go!"

Soma, however, was not quite finished yet. "For the first few goes, I'll let you keep Bardiche, Fate," he said. "But once you've gotten some practice, you'll have to start working without his help." The blonde girl nodded as she adjusted her blindfold before putting her earmuffs on.

'Alright everyone,' Soma thought, using his telepathy to speak not only to Fate and Arf, but the various souls that lived within him. 'Let's go!' With that, he vanished in a rush.

Soma genuinely enjoyed training with Fate and Nanoha, but there was another reason he did it. Six months ago, within Castlevania, he had fully accepted his own dark powers, vowing to use them to protect humanity rather than destroy it. Therefore, this training was also giving him a chance to gain a greater control over his own new strengths. One of these was a major boost to his ability to teleport. From what Julius Belmont had told him, this had always been one of Dracula's greatest advantages, but it had been one that Soma often struggled with. Now, he could relatively easily cross the distance from downtown Tokyo up to Hakuba shrine in a single jump, though it would leave him winded and disoriented for a time. However, for the relatively short jumps around the courtyard, he could now last for ages with only minimal strain. Of course, if he had also been using his souls in battle, it would have taken a larger toll on him, but it was still an improvement.

As he began the training, he was once again impressed by just how good Fate was at what she put her mind too. Even though she and Arf missed the first few throws, it was clear they knew exactly where he was, and by the tenth attempt Soma actually caught one of the tennis balls without having to reach. With that, he called a halt and had Fate stop using Bardiche. There was some decrease in accuracy, but the girl never lost track of him even as he picked up speed. At this rate, Soma would be able to move on to the second part of the exercise today, something he thought would have to wait until next time.

An hour or so into the practice, someone else entered the courtyard: Mina Hakuba, the daughter of the shrine owners, Fate's adopted older sister, and Soma's beloved. She smiled warmly as she leaned against the archway into the courtyard, silently watching her sisters twirl gracefully, lobbing tennis balls at Soma.

After the last of the hundred balls was thrown, Soma called for a halt after making sure he was on the opposite side of the courtyard from Mina. "Alright, great job," he said. "You both did really well." Catching his hint, Mina stifled a giggle before silently making her way forward. "Although…"

"Although what?" Fate asked, a hint of her old nervousness breaking through.

Soma smiled as Arf's eyes widened just before Mina wrapped her arms around the pair from behind. "Even after the test itself is finished," she said sweetly. "You still have to be careful, to make sure your sister isn't sneaking up on you."

Fate's cheeks reddened. "Oh… good morning, Sister," she squeaked.

The white-haired man couldn't help but laugh a bit. All of the Hakubas loved Fate and Arf, but Mina especially went out of her way to shower the girls with affection. She had confided in him that she had always wanted younger siblings, and it showed. Watching Mina, Soma couldn't help but think she'd make a wonderful mother some day. Of course, that line of thought led to several _other_ lines of thought that he had been considering recently… His eyes moved towards the shrine building proper, wondering if…

Suddenly, a buzz came from Soma's pocket, interrupting his thoughts. He pulled the phone out, thinking that it was probably Yoko or Nanoha; today was one of the days where all four were practicing at the same time. His shoulders tensed, however, when he saw Arikado's name: the head of the SI Division _knew_ that he was with Fate today. The dhampire was generally far to busy to get personally involved in the training… but he also wouldn't call unless it was important.

"Soma?" Mina asked, and as he looked up he realized that all three of the girls were staring at him. "Is it bad?"

The phone rang again. "I'm not sure," he said warily, pressing the button to answer the call. "Arikado?"

"I'm sorry, Soma," the dhampir said, his voice grim. "I know today's an important day for you, but your help is needed. I'm going to have to ask you to return immediately."

A flash of annoyance filled Soma, but he forced it down: Arikado knew what he was doing. "I'll be right there," he said.

Arikado's voice softened a bit. "I truly am sorry, Soma. I'll see you there." With that, he hung up.

Soma slowly put the phone away, wryly remembering a very similar conversation he'd had with his boss six months ago. "Do you have to go?" Fate asked sadly.

"Yeah," Soma said.

Arf huffed before shrugging. "Well, you'd better get going; I doubt he'll wait forever." Everyone glanced at her, causing the wolf-girl to roll her eyes. "What? You think I don't get it that sometimes you'll have to be somewhere else? Please, as long as you're better to Fate than _her_, I'll be perfectly happy, no matter how much I needle you for being late all the time."

"I'm not late all the time," Soma said, grinning despite himself. Both Arf and Fate had grown so much these past six months. "But you're right, I'll see you all later."

Mina nodded before stepping forward and wrapping her arms around Soma. "Just be careful, alright?" she whispered in his ear before giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"I will, Mina," Soma said, returning the embrace for a long moment and pressing his forehead to hers before nodding again to the younger girls and making his way out of the shrine. Once outside the wards that sealed much of his power, Soma closed his eyes and marked a specific point, far away in downtown Tokyo, in his minds eye. 'Alright, everyone,' he thought to the souls. 'Brace yourselves, we're on our way.' A moment later, Soma's coat flapped in an invisible wind before his body turned to shadows and vanished.

He arrived a second later in a small gated alleyway just across the street from the Special Investigation Division's building, since the building itself was warded and fortified to prevent direct teleportation. Blinking the disorientation out of his eyes, Soma quickly left the alley and made his way over to the building. His steps slowed, however, as he realized that Arikado was already standing outside the building along with another man. 'This must be truly urgent if he's in this much of a hurry,' Soma thought grimly as he made his way over.

"Thank you for coming so promptly, Soma," Arikado said. "This is Kumamoto Ryota, and you'll be working with him on a case. I'll leave the two of you to discuss the details." With that, the leader of the Division spun around and walked back inside, leaving Soma with Ryota.

The man, an average looking Japanese male in his mid forties, held out a hand. "It's an honor to meet you in person, Agent Cruz," he said. "Although I wish it could have been under better circumstances."

Soma's eyes narrowed as he took the offered hand. "Is someone hurt?" he asked warily.

Ryota sighed, jerking his head towards the building's parking lot. "We should get going." Soma nodded and fell into step next to the man. A moment later, he continued. "To answer your question, yes: my partner, Nagano Tadao." Soma's hand twitched: he never dealt well with agents getting hurt. "You've heard about the recent rash of muggings, the ones the press has been debating for weeks?" Soma nodded immediately; there was little else the media talked about these days. "Well, after the eighth, we at the SI decided to make a brief check, and we realized the connection that the police had missed: that all of those involved had some magical potential. It generally wasn't much, but it was there. That put it under our purview, and Tadao and I were tasked with finding out what was going on."

"And someone tried to bump him off?" Soma asked as the pair got into a car and made their way out.

"I'm not sure, but it's possible, I suppose," Ryota said. "But I think they happened to see him and went for him. It's the same MO, same injury structure, same everything, well except the fact that they weren't targeting someone who didn't know what they were doing, but one of our best-trained combat practitioners. Well, not counting you." He glanced at Soma out of the corner of his eye. "I guess that's why Mr. Arikado asked you to step in: if half the rumors are true you're on a level all your own." Soma nodded: aside from Arikado and Julius that was true.

"So, is Agent Nagano alright?" he asked after a moment of silence.

Ryota nodded. "Yeah. He's still unconscious, and if the attacker was able to follow the rest of their procedure he might not remember much, but he'll live."

Another silence passed before Soma spoke up again "So what do we know?"

"At the moment, not much," Ryota said. "We know that whoever this is has some way of detecting magically apt people in a crowd, and then he, she, or they lure these people to a private place to attack. In more than a dozen cases, there has never once been a report of noises; so once our perpetrator moves in for the attack, they are fast and silent." He sighed. "But… I just can't see Tadao going down quietly, especially not with his injuries. He had to have fought them… but no one heard a thing. It's driving me _nuts_!"

Soma's thoughts raced. There were several creatures that he could think of that would be able to quickly and quietly subdue even a talented practitioner if they were able to take them by surprise, but the problem was that none of these creatures would leave the victim alive afterwards. 'Any thoughts?' he said to his souls. Even though he had gained much more knowledge about the forces of darkness over the past six months; he was still more than happy to let the souls under his command pitch in when they recognized something that he didn't.

'Nothing, Master,' Stolas, one of the more knowledgeable souls, said after a long moment of thought. 'Thus, it is likely that a human did this: Without knowing their motives; it will be nearly impossible to predict their movements.' Soma nodded; he'd figured much the same, but it was nice to have another opinion.

"We're here," Ryota said, shaking Soma out of his thoughts. "I was rather hoping that there wouldn't be too much of a crowd, but I guess that would be too much to expect." Soma nodded as his fellow parked the car near several police vehicles and the pair got out.

"Look, if you don't have business here, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," a harried looking police officer said, hurrying over. Soma simply pulled out his badge and showed it to the man, who nodded after a long moment. "Oh, we were told to expect you," he said, his tone more hopeful. "I wish you luck, we haven't had any." With that, the man helped Soma and Ryota through the worried crowd of onlookers and into the alley that had been cordoned off, where they were met by the sergeant in charge.

"Glad to see you again, Kumamoto," the man grunted. "Wish it could have been under better circumstances."

"The same to you," Ryota said. "Agent Cruz, if you want to look around, I'll talk to the good sergeant and see what they've found."

Soma nodded absentmindedly, his attention elsewhere as he wandered over to stand near the chalk outline near the wall. 'Anything?' he thought.

'There's certainly magical signatures in the area,' the soul of a Student Witch said quietly. The reincarnation of Dracula couldn't help but smile: Witch had recently been making a push to get her apprentice to gain confidence. The mental image of the girl turned, clutching her broom to her chest as she scanned the alley. 'It's faint, though, very faint.'

'And what does that mean?' Soma asked as he crouched down to study some scuff marks on the ground, even though he had some ideas of his own.

The soul took a second to answer. "Well, wouldn't it mean that either there wasn't much magic being used… or whoever was doing it was just really good at controlling bleed-off?"

'That's exactly what I think it means,' Soma thought. 'And that's what worries me.' He rose to his feet and scanned the area with his eyes, looking for any concentrations of magical energy. After a moment of searching, he found one against the opposite wall a ways away, right above a police marker. Making his way quickly over, he snagged the nearest officer. "What was here?" he asked, nodding to the marker.

"Oh, that?" the officer said. "It's an old bullet casing... or at least something that looks like one, it's a bit strange. We don't think it's connected: the victim wasn't shot, and there's no way no one would have reported gunfire. I'm guessing it's pretty old, but it was in the area of investigation, so it got bagged and tagged with everything else."

Soma's eyes narrowed; something didn't feel right. "May I see it?" he asked quietly.

The officer glanced at his sergeant, who nodded. "Sure," he said, turning away. "I'll just go get it for you." Soma nodded himself, his attention still on the faint magical signatures. There was something about them that… that almost seemed familiar, as if he'd felt it before. As he waited, he began scanning through the memories of Dracula, but he didn't get far before the man returned with a plastic bag holding the casing along with a pair of white gloves. Soma accepted them and, after putting them on, carefully took the casing out and observed it.

He immediately realized what the officer had meant by it being something "like" a casing. While it certainly looked like one, it was solid, with no room for gunpowder or other types of propellant. This didn't particularly surprise Soma; he figured it was something magical. What did surprise him, however, was that, so far as he could tell; the object was pure metal, likely brass. He'd expected there to simply be a shell for some sort of crystal: but no matter how he looked he couldn't find any sign of openings. The only physical sign that this was more than an oddly-shaped paperweight was the strange carvings, invisible to the naked eye and difficult to see even when he enhanced his own, that spiraled around, looking like someone had carved countless shell shapes into the brass. Once again, he had the strangest feeling that he'd seen this before.

"Any luck?" Ryota asked as he and the sergeant made their way over.

"This is defiantly connected to the case," Soma said quietly, holding up the strange object. "But I've never seen or heard of anything like this."

Ryota nodded. "Well, it's something new, we never found anything like that at the other scenes." He sighed as he looked around. "Still, I just can't figure out why Tadao would come here; this isn't on the way to his apartment, and there's no way he'd just wander off…" Soma didn't have an answer for that, but thankfully before he had to give one Ryota's phone buzzed. He immediately pulled it out and put it to his ear. "Yes?" Soma heard the faint buzz of conversation, but he didn't enhance his hearing to listen it: if it were important Ryota would tell him. A moment later, the man's eyes widened. "That's great, we'll be right there!" he said before hanging up and turning back to Soma. "Tadao just woke up."

"Excellent, we should go see him," Soma said before glancing at the sergeant and holding up the strange magical casing. "Sir, do you mind if I hold onto this? I feel like I'm close to something."

The officer clearly wasn't happy, but he nodded sharply. "If you believe it will help," he said. "I will ask, however, that your people forward any information to our lab."

Soma nodded. "By your leave?" he said. The sergeant nodded, and with that Soma and Ryota turned and left the alley.

As they made their way back to headquarters, Soma's thoughts lingered on what he knew about the case. He knew that there was some sort of magical artifact; one he knew very little about, that somehow used a power source that should have been highly inefficient, but some instinct told him was equal to anything he'd ever seen before. And there was the fact that no one had ever seen anything… he was _missing_ something, something obvious.

'If it helps, Master,' Stolas said. 'I have determined why the shapes carved into the item seem familiar.'

'Excellent,' Soma though, turning his full attention to the owl-demon.

'Humans call it a Fibonacci Spiral,' the soul continued. 'I did some calculations, and I believe that this method is actually quite efficient as storing magical energy, perhaps as much as a proper crystal matrix, especially with this level of detail.'

Soma's eyes widened: there was a reason why crystals had long been associated with magic. 'What's the catch?' he asked.

'The 'catch,' Master, is that to get this level of detail is very difficult, even with magic. Even today, when human technology can do it, it is still easier to keep use crystals.' Soma nodded, that made sense, even if it did raise a lot of questions of its own as to who would use something like this.

'There is something else as well,' Witch said. 'My student and I were looking at the structure of the artifact… and we realized that there's another problem. Crystals are excellent at storing energy in part because it can release it as easily as they store it. This method, however, only unleashes energy out of one spot, near the back. It's possible for humans to draw energy from it, but the focused nature of the release will put a lot of strain on their body, more than most human bodies are capable of withstanding. You could of course, as could Sir Belmont, but even Ms. Yoko would have trouble.'

As Soma's thoughts continued to race, Ryota glanced at him. "We're back," he said. "Are you… well?"

Soma blinked. "Yeah," he said as the two began making their way towards the medical area of HQ. "I was just trying to figure out how this thing works.

A few minutes later, the pair had been admitted to Tadao's room, where the man was propped up against the wall behind his bed with his face in his hands. "Hey, there," Ryota said gently. "How are you?"

"Perfectly fine, save for the fact that everything that happened after I left you last night is a blur," Tadao said sardonically before he noticed Soma. "So Mr. Arikado called in the big guns, huh? Nice to meet you, Agent Cruz,"

"Same to you, Agent Nagano," Soma said.

The man sighed. "I suppose you're hoping that I can tell you something about what happened last night," he said. "I've been trying to remember, but its like everyone else: there's nothing solid to remember anymore. My magic was drained, and it seems that that messed with my memories. I'm sorry."

Soma nodded, that made sense. Unfortunately, there were countless reasons someone would drain someone's magical energy; nothing to narrow down a specific motive. Still, he had some ways that he might be able to jog the other agent's memory. He held out the magical cartridge. "Does this ring any bells?"

Slowly, the man took the offered metal and stared at it, his eyes narrowed. "A little," he whispered. "There was… a weapon… a hammer…" Ryota began to open his mouth, but Soma waved him down; Tadao was on the verge of a breakthrough. "But… there was something strange about the hammer… what was it."

Acting on a sudden, terrible hunch, Soma spoke. "Did it speak?"

Tadao's eyes widened. "It did!" he said. "Just after it spat this out, it said something." He glanced at Soma. "But how did you know that?"

Soma, however, was to busy trying to figure out how this was possible. The advanced method of energy storage, the talking weapons… even the fact that no one had witnessed the battles... everything was now perfectly explainable… and that fact worried him. "Thank you for your time," he said. "I have to go talk to Arikado right away."

The pair glanced at each other. "Are you saying you've figured it out?" Ryota asked warily. Soma simply nodded, already headed for the door. "Is it so bad that you can't tell us?"

"I'm afraid so," Soma said. "If I'm right… then we've got problems, big problems." With that, he left the room, all but dashing through the base towards the elevator to Arikado's office. 'Is there anything else that explains all this?' he wondered.

'Not that I can think of, Master,' Persephone said warily from the back of his mind. 'But… there's no way they'd do this, right?'

'Not the Bureau itself, of course,' Succubus said. 'But where there is human authority, there are those resisting it. If any of them got wind of Earth, they may be tempted to come here to escape the Bureau's reach.' She turned her full attention to Soma. 'Another thing, Master; I figured out why the magical signature in the alley seemed similar: we were so focused on Lord Dracula's memories that we forgot that you have seen some magics that even he never did. This particular system is very similar to the magic of Bureau technology. There are some key differences, but its too close to be coincidence.'

A hiss left Soma's mouth. 'I was afraid of that,' he thought. 'I just hope that Arikado has some idea of how to deal with this. I know I can defeat anything we've seen Mid-Childan magic use, but finding them will be a problem.' A moment later, the elevator doors hissed open, revealing the outer areas of Arikado's office.

The receptionist looked up. "Agent Cruz?" she asked warily. "Mr. Arikado wasn't expecting you."

Before Soma could answer, the intercom buzzed to life. "If Agent Cruz is here, it's important," Arikado said. "Please, send him in." The woman nodded and quickly gestured towards the door. Soma quickly thanked her as he made his way into the office.

Once the door was closed, Arikado spoke up. "I'm assuming you discovered something. I admit you were faster than expected."

"I believe that the events you asked me to investigate have something to do with the TSAB, or at least people from that neighborhood." The dhampire's eyes narrowed as Soma quickly summarized what he'd learned, along with the explanations he had come up with. After a minute, he sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers.

"I find myself agreeing with your instincts," he said. "Now, we must decide what to do about it." He gestured for Soma to sit down. "Now, I believe it is safe to assume that the Bureau itself is in no way involved. Their last visit had mentioned that they might observe Earth, but this doesn't seem to be something they'd do." Soma nodded, that stood to reason. "In that case, our best option seems to be to send the information on this object to them. If it is something from their end, they will be able to assist us..."

"And if it's not, we'll be able to focus our attention on Earth-based groups," Soma continued. "So, I guess we'll send a message to Nanoha, who will forward it to Yuuno." The two children had kept their promise to stay in touch: exchanging electronic letters every few weeks.

Arikado nodded. "I agree," he said, leaning forward and pressing a few buttons on one of his phones. "Yoko should still be with her." Soma picked up the cartridge again and began mentally composing the information he needed the Bureau to see as the phone began to ring.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Uminari, four people were gathered in a small clearing: three young girls and a middle-aged woman. One of the girls, a short-haired brunette with twin-tails, was standing in the center of the clearing beneath a spinning pink ball of light, one that was keeping an empty can aloft.

"You're doing great, Nanoha!" the woman, Yoko, said. "Just keep focusing."

"**One hundred twenty two, one hundred twenty three…**" the red gem Nanoha Takamachi was clutching to her chest said; it's voice proud despite its mechanical nature. The other two girls; Arisa Bannings and Suzuka Tsukimura, didn't speak, but their eyes remained fixed on the can.

A bead of sweat began to trickle down Nanoha's forehead, but she blocked it out. This particular exercise wasn't physically taxing, but it did require absolute focus and precision. She wasn't certain, but she believes that the reason Yoko kept speaking out loud was to help her learn to maintain that focus even with distractions. As her thoughts wandered, the can almost got away, but she clenched her teeth and brought it back under control.

Just then, Yoko's phone began to ring. Nanoha did her best to ignore it, but a part of her was naturally curious as to who was calling at this time.

"I'm sorry, but… Arikado, is that you?" the witch said, her eyes still on Nanoha before they widened. "And Soma!? What's going on?" Finally, Nanoha's focus broke, and she gave the can a few more quick whacks to send it towards the bag that marked her goal. The can flew and landed just short, but the fact that both Arikado and Soma were calling Yoko now was more than enough to distract Nanoha.

"What's going on?" she asked, making her way over along with her friends. Yoko quickly switched her phone to speaker so that everyone could hear.

"…still with Ms. Takamachi?" Arikado was saying, his voice as tense as Nanoha remembered it.

"Yes," Yoko said, glancing at Nanoha. "What's going on?"

Arikado didn't answer her directly, his next statement was directed at Nanoha herself. "Ms. Takamachi, you remain in contact with Yuuno Scrya, don't you?"

"Of course," Nanoha said, reaching into her pocked and pulling out a small card. "I actually just got a letter from him this morning, but I haven't had a chance to listen to it. Why?"

Soma spoke up at this point. "We just came across something that we think the Bureau might be interest in." Another beep came from Yoko's phone, and when Nanoha looked she saw Soma had sent a picture of a strange object that looked like a bullet casing. "This object was used in the latest of the muggings that you've likely heard about. Its highly magical, and certain parts of the design, as well as some of the events surrounding the case, remind us strongly of Bureau magical technology."

Nanoha gasped. "They'd never hurt anyone like that!" she said. "They…"

"We're not saying the Bureau itself did anything wrong," Soma said soothingly. "But we do think that someone from their culture; likely outlaws of some kind, are involved. If that is the case, then they deserve to know."

The girl took a breath. "Alright," she said. "I'll send Yuuno a message,"

"Thank you, Nanoha," Soma said. "It'll just take me a little while to properly send all the information to you, then you can send it off." Nanoha nodded as she and everyone else quickly said goodbye before the people in Tokyo hung up.

After a moment, Yoko looked over. "So, there should be time for you to listen to Yuuno's letter before Soma's ready for the reply, in case you want to respond to anything he said."

Nanoha nodded happily. "That's right." With that, she held up Raising Heart in one hand and Yuuno's message card in the other. "Raising Heart, play letter."

"**Of course, My Master**," the Intelligent Device said. A moment later, a beam of pink light glowed from the depths of the red gem and ran up and down the card before the device formed a transparent screen, showing the message Nanoha's friend had recorded for her. Suzuka and Arisa quickly hurried around to stand behind Nanoha, and even Yoko perked her ear in interest.

Nanoha's eyes widened, however, when she took in the Yuuno Scrya on the screen. Normally when he made these letters, he looked his normal neat and tidy self. Occasionally, he would have a few smudges of dirt on his face if he had just gotten back from an archeological dig, but he normally got rid of those. This time, however, the shapeshifter was clearly disheveled; his hair all over the place and his favorite brown cloak on inside out. Even his voice sounded tired as he spoke… tired and a bit worried.

"Hey, Nanoha," he said, his eyes flicking to one side for a moment. "Sorry, this letter's going to be really short, but something's come up." He took a breath before continuing in a more calm voice. "I was just finishing up here on Uninhabited World 232 when a shuttle from the Bureau came asking for me."

Nanoha blinked. "What?" she couldn't help but ask, even though she knew her friend wouldn't be able to answer her.

However, it was clear he'd predicted her confusion as the recorded boy waited a moment before continuing. "They didn't tell me what it was about, just asked me very nicely to come with them." He chuckled weakly. "Well, when the Time Space Administration Bureau sends a shuttle all the way out to Uninhabited World 232 to pick you up, it's generally a good career option to say yes. I'm pretty sure I'm not in trouble, since the nice people they sent were willing to let me throw this letter together for you. So don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

Contrary to what Yuuno wanted; these words only made Nanoha worry more. She may not know a whole lot about the Bureau's structure, but it seemed odd that they would want Yuuno no, and from the glance Arisa and Suzuka shared they weren't mollified either. However, none of them spoke as Yuuno continued on. "I'm just sending this to let you know that I won't be able to receive any letters from you for a while. Once whatever the Bureau wants is done, I'll tell you all about it." He glanced off-screen again before nodding. "Well, I hope this letter finds you well, Nanoha. Until later." With that, he leaned forward and turned off the camera he was using to record.

A long moment of silence filled the clearing before Yoko spoke. "I don't like this," she said quietly. "I suppose it could be a coincidence…"

"Or Yuuno could have been kidnapped!" Nanoha squeaked. "The people Soma's after could be the ones who did it!"

"That's a possibility," Yoko said, pressing a few buttons on her phone. "Whatever the reason, Arikado and Soma need to know that we won't be able to contact the Bureau." Nanoha listened as the phone rang twice before Arikado picked up.

"What is it, Yoko?" he asked, his voice grim.

"Yuuno's out of contact," Yoko said. "His letter was telling Nanoha that some people had just come for him and that he wouldn't be able to receive letters for a while. He said they were from the Bureau, but…"

Arikado drew in a sharp breath. "Yes, the timing is suspicious," he said. "Yoko, escort Ms. Takamachi home immediately. Soma, go and collect Ms. Hakuba and make your way to Uminari."

Nanoha gasped. "Fate's coming here!?" she squeaked happily, almost forgetting her fears about Yuuno.

"Until we have a better grip on the situation, its best that you, Ms. Hakuba, and Arf remain together. Soma likely won't stay long; he'll be needed to lead the investigation into the attacks, but Yoko will likely stay in the area, at least for a while."

"Um, what about Julius?" Nanoha asked. "I haven't heard anything from him for ages?"

A moment of silence filled the line before Soma spoke. "I think he's taking a vacation; he's not as young as he used to be. I haven't heard much from him either. Don't worry, though, I'm sure he's fine. Well, I'll see you when Fate and I get there."

"Alright," Nanoha said. "Bye, then."

"Stay safe." With that, the call ended.

After a moment, Yoko nodded. "Well, you heard Arikado," she said before turning to Arisa and Suzuka. "Do you want me to walk you home too?"

The two girls glanced at each other before Arisa shook her head. "Well, actually, we were planning on going to the library after spending some time with Nanoha," she said. "Don't worry, we'll be careful."

Yoko studied them for a long moment before speaking. "Very well, but if something happens, call Nanoha or I immediately, and we'll come get you." With that, she turned to Nanoha. "Well, we should head back."

As the pair walked, Nanoha pulled her own phone out and pressed a few buttons, trying to estimate when Soma and Fate would arrive. After a few minutes, she finally decided that it would be in about five hours.

She was still worried about Yuuno, of course, but it was great to know that Fate would be with her soon.

* * *

Ironically, a train from Tokyo happened to be pulling into Uminari Station at almost exactly that moment. As usual, the majority of the passengers were ordinary people, unaware of the events that were about to begin. However, there was an unusual tension at the back of the rear car of the train, all due to a single passenger that didn't fit the mold.

She was a stunningly beautiful woman who looked to be in her early twenties. Her white-blonde hair, long enough to reach to the small of her back, was done up in a ponytail in the back, and her bangs hung to just above her crystal-green eyes. Her manner of dress also set her apart: rather than the suit and ties of the majority of riders, she wore a light-blue blouse and a skirt that reached past her knees that complemented her pale skin perfectly, along with a piece of cloth at her back that was too short to be a cape and too long to be anything else. Her feet and lower legs were covered by light brown boots that reached just below the end of her skirt, showing the barest hint of leg. She also wore a pair of white gloves that reached her elbows, though they had no fingertips so as to leave her nails free. Around her neck was a thin golden chain, though whatever hung at the end was not visible as it was tucked securely away.

Many of the other passengers on the train, especially the male ones, couldn't help but stare at her. She didn't appear to notice, too preoccupied with staring out the window, one finger gently tracing patterns on the glass. At various points during the ride, several of the bolder observers had begun making moves to try and join her, only to come up short when they realized that she was not, in fact, alone. Beside her sat a tall man that somehow only seemed to be noticeable when he wished to be. Unlike his companion, he was dressed in a more normal suit and tie, but he also wore a pair of dark sunglasses, large enough to completely obscure his eyes. When he was noticed, however, it was when he was glaring at whoever dared to approach his charge, driving them back by sheer force of will.

Finally, as the train came to a halt, the lady looked up at her guard. No words passed between them as he rose with an almost inhuman grace, allowing her to stand with equal ease. Then, he fell into step behind her as they made their way out into Uminari Station, still followed by the eyes of everyone nearby.

At first, it seemed the girl was content to wander, gently making her way through the crowd at the station, her eyes constantly moving. However, as she stepped out onto the street, her gaze suddenly shifted to a seemingly random bench. A thin smile crossed her face as she turned and made her way swiftly over, still shadowed by the tall man.

As she approached the bench, the attention she was being paid by others steadily diminished until, as she gently settled down on one end, she might as well have not existed as far as the ordinary passer-by was concerned. Her guard, meanwhile, did not sit, but instead took up position just behind her, his gaze locked on the only other figure on the bench: a bald man wearing a white lab coat over a white shirt and pants. This man didn't look up, instead keeping his eyes on the book in his hands.

After several long moments, the woman spoke, her voice completely calm and controlled despite her accented Japanese. "You are quite good at this. I almost didn't notice you."

The man finally looked up, his grey eyes shining with mirth. "You flatter me, my Lady Sylphina," he said, closing the book without bothering to mark his page: he would remember where he was. "Coming from one whose people are among the greatest in the arts of glamours; I take that as a great complement."

Sylphina's smile widened, but it did not reach her eyes. "Now who flatters who?" she asked. The man simply shrugged, his own smile unmoving. Another silence charged with subtle tensions filled the air before she spoke again. "So, you have lured me out here, farther than I have ever traveled from home. I assume you have some reason for this?"

"Lured? That is a rather cruel way of putting it; it is almost as if you don't trust me." If the man was offended he kept it from his face and voice. "I simply discovered information that I heard you might be interested in, and decided to inform you of it."

The lady's eyes narrowed slightly. "If by 'inform me,' you mean somehow placing a letter upon my pillow, slipping through dozens of ancient and powerful wards, hundreds of guards and servants, and all other manners of defenses without triggering a single one of them, then yes, you _informed_ me." She shook her head. "And the contents of your letter: nothing but alluring hints; things that no-one I do not know should have had any knowledge of. Besides, the fact that you are here means that you knew that, despite all the danger of this endeavor, despite the fact that, as my guard has taken great cares to inform me: coming here is _foolish_; I would come. I can only imagine that this means that you know even more than you are letting on."

Chuckling, the man inclined his head. "That is quite observant of you, my Lady," he said. "I do know a great deal about a great many things. However, in this case I believe that is to your benefit, or did I overestimate your interest in the Belkan Empire."

"…No…" Sylphina said slowly, her hands twitching slightly. "Although I am still extremely interested in how you knew that name, as well as my involvement." The man didn't answer, simply smiling mysteriously, until she suppressed a sigh and continued. "So, your letter said that you had information on the Belkan Empire, what do you wish in exchange for it?"

"So suspicious, my Lady," the man said, laughing. Sylphina raised an eyebrow delicately.

"So you'll give me the information for free?" she asked sweetly, causing the man to laugh even more loudly. Had there not been a glamour around them, a lot of people would have been staring at them.

"I'm afraid not, though I doubt you will find the payment too burdensome." The man's smile faded slightly as his eyes turned to the sky. "A storm is coming, Lady Sylphina. Darkness peeks over the horizon… and before this year has reached its end, a terrible battle will be fought." His gaze turned back to you, and a chill passed through Sylphina at how sharp his gaze was. "There are four Belkan knights in this city; they will be at the center of the battle. They are brave and talented… but still, they will need your help. For the information, all I ask is that you aid them in their mission."

Sylphina's eyes widened. "There are Belkan knights here?" she whispered.

"There are, and if you agree to help them, I will tell you how to find them. Don't worry, unless you are against saving the life of a child, then their mission will be one you would find acceptable." The man's eyes continued to pierce the lady. "Do we have a bargain?"

After a long moment, she nodded. "Very well, we have a bargain. I… would have wished to support them in any case."

The man smiled, leaning back on the bench. "Then I recommend that you make your way to the forest to the north-west of here. It might take some time, but they'll find you. Don't be discouraged that they are suspicious at first; they'll soon realize that they need you."

"Who will they be fighting?" Sylphina asked.

"That's up to you to figure out, my Lady. I can't make this _too_ easy for you. I will tell you that, like their mission, the knight's ultimate enemy is not one you will have a moral crisis in combating." The man cocked his head. "Now, you should probably get going if you want to be on time for your meeting. If you need assistance; I'll be in the city." He rose to his feet, tucking the book under his arm. "Well, my Lady, I wish you the best of luck. Good day." With a nod to both Sylphina and her guard, he turned to leave.

Sylphina, mildly annoyed at being brushed off, spoke one last time. "Surely it is polite to give someone a name if you've made such a deal with them?"

"Of course, my Lady, I do apologize for my rudeness," the man said, turning and giving a sweeping bow. "I have had many names, but if it pleases you, you may call me Zobek."

_AN: Sequel is go, and already things are heating up. Please read and review. _


	2. Of Knights and Oaths

Review Response:

Krazyfanfiction1: Glad to hear from you again, and I'm glad you like the chapter. As for the shipping, I assume you mean NxF, and like in several other cases, I take my cues from DezoPenguin. In one of his stories, someone said that: "Nanoha was only Fate's best friend for as long as it took her body to catch up with her heart." They're still in that phase since they're both nine/ten at the moment.

edboy4926: I'm glad you're interested. Yes, Soma can easily fight any of the Wolkenritter to a standstill, and beat most of them. The reason I'm introducing some new characters is so that the knights don't get overwhelmed without me giving them a massive power boost.

MangamanZX: Welcome back. I was trying to create a scene with Fate in a miko outfit learning the ropes from Mina, but I decided on showing her magic instead.

KadoyaOkami: I can assure you that this is not a crossover with Lords of Shadow… not that that makes things _that_ much better.

Chapter 2: Of Knights and Oaths

Yuuno stared out the window of the inter-dimensional shuttle as it glided swiftly through the undulating black and purple lights of deep dimensional space. Adjusting the green-rimmed half-moon glasses he now wore for what felt like the hundredth time, he wondered why the TSAB had summoned him on such short notice, especially for a reason too important to be discussed away from their headquarters.

Some of his nerves had to have shown on his face because one of the agents, a young woman named Eirika, turned and gave him a reassuring smile. "It's alright, Mr. Scrya," she said. "As we said before, you're not in trouble; the Bureau is simply interested in your input on a mater of some importance." She smiled wryly. "Apparently it's sensitive enough that we really do need you to come to HQ. It's certainly sensitive enough that they don't tell us about it." She turned back and pointed out the front viewport. "Look, there it is now."

As Yuuno shifted his head to see, he couldn't help but gasp. He had seen plenty of pictures of the headquarters of the Time Space Administration Bureau, of course, but those didn't do justice to the size and grandeur of the station. Even at the height of the Belkan Empire; it was estimated that there were only three dimensional stations that would have matched the scope of the massive structure; although the Belkans had far more smaller bases. Almost as impressive was the dozens of lights moving around the dark arms of the station; each marking one of the many ships that enforced law and order in Bureau space.

"Yeah, it's quite something, isn't it?" Eirika said, brushing a lock of light green hair out her face as her fingers flew across the shuttle's control board. A moment later, she spoke again, this time to the screen that had just popped up. "This is Transport Shuttle X152, returning from Uninhabited World 232 and requesting docking clearance."

"Shuttle X152, this is Station Control, we receive your signal," a calm, collected man said from the other end of the communication. "Enter holding pattern CM 4 and lock your beacon onto Bay 18."

"Pattern CM 4 and Bay 18, acknowledged," Eirika said as the pilot, who hadn't said a word all trip, shifted the shuttle towards one of the clusters of light. After a moment, she glanced over at him. "That was fast; normally shuttles have to wait for ages at Bays 23-56." She turned back to Yuuno with a cheeky smile. "Are you secretly an undercover Enforcer or something?"

Yuuno shook his head. "No, no, I'm just an archeologist," he said quickly. "I have no idea what's going on."

This was not, however, strictly true. He was beginning to think that he was being called for some reason relating to the events on Earth that had taken place six months ago, but what he couldn't understand was why _now_. He'd told the Bureau everything he knew about Earth while they were taking him back home after it was all over, so there wasn't much he could do to help. He briefly considered the possibility that they were planning to begin open communications with Earth, but he dismissed that idea: it had only been six months, which was almost no time for the Bureau. Besides, even if they were considering it they had plenty of diplomats; they wouldn't need him.

Not that he wasn't interested in going back: video letters were all well and good, but the often-solitary life of an archeologist had taught Yuuno the importance of direct contact. While Admiral Lindy had not _forbidden_ him from going to visit when she had brought him home, she had strongly recommended that it would be best if he didn't. "This will be delicate time for Earth," she had said gently over her cup of tea. "There are many dangers among the dimensions that they might not be ready to face; despite their skills, and if these things notice someone Transferring back and forward, they might get curious."

He was shaken out of his thoughts by the station's controller coming back online. "Shuttle X152, you are cleared for landing. Please proceed."

"Rodger that, Control," Eirika said before nodding to her companion, who nodded back and shifted the shuttle around Yuuno watched as the station grew larger and larger until it filled the entire viewport. Finally, after a minute of maneuvering, the shuttle hissed to a halt as it settled onto a small docking pad near the top of one of the docking arms.

"Thank you," he said, rising and shifting the bag he'd brought with him.

"You're welcome, Mr. Scrya," Eirika said before glancing at her screen again. "It seems someone's expecting you." She smiled. "You probably shouldn't keep him waiting. It was nice meeting you."

Yuuno nodded as he stepped out the shuttle's open hatch and looked around. After a moment he caught sight of a familiar blue-haired Enforcer. "Enforcer Harlaown," he said as he made his way over.

"Ferret boy," Chrono Harlaown said, smirking.

The shapeshifter rubbed a hand across his forehead. "I was hoping you'd forgotten about that," he muttered. When he'd first met Chrono six months ago, he'd thought the young man was one of those Enforcers that kept constant control over their emotions: never letting anything slip through. To be fair, he was mostly right. However Chrono did seem to have a bit of a sarcastic streak; one that had gone into overdrive the moment he learned that Yuuno was capable of becoming a ferret. It had only grown worse when; during the discussion of the events on Earth, Yuuno had been tricked into admitting that Nanoha had often carried Yuuno around and occasionally cuddled him.

"An Enforcer never forgets anything," Chrono said simply before stepping aside, gesturing Yuuno to come with him. "I'm glad you decided to come."

"Did I have a choice?" Yuuno asked warily.

"Of course you did. You weren't under arrest, so it was perfectly within your right to remain where you were. That would have been a waste, but you still could have done it." The walked in silence for a minute and entered an elevator before Chrono spoke again. "Although, last I checked you didn't need eye corrections."

Yuuno couldn't help but smile proudly. "These aren't prescription; they're my new Device," he said. "Say hello, Hoplana."

"**Greetings, Enforcer Harlaown,**" a slightly perky yet still mechanical voice said, the rims of the glasses flashed in time with the words.

"After I got back," Yuuno continued. "My family decided that, if I was going to be dealing with Lost Logia, then I might as well have a proper Device to do it with. Unlike Raising Heart, Hoplana is optimized for defense and search spells, so we're a good match."

Chrono looked mildly impressed. "Good for you," he said. "But enough of that, we're here."

Yuuno blinked, he hadn't realized that he and Chrono had come to a halt outside one of the offices lining the corridor they had been walking down. Looking up, he noted the name Admiral G. Graham. "What's going on?" he asked warily.

"Not outside," Chrono said, raising a hand and knocking while still looking at Yuuno. "We'll…"

"Chrono!"

Yuuno barely had time to see the Enforcer's eyes widen in shock before the door whooshed open and a blur tackled him to the ground, giggling happily. "Oh it's _so_ good to see you, Chrono!" a girl said, her long cat tail swishing as she rubbed her cheek against Chrono's. "You never call! You never write! Why, Aria and I are starting to get worried that you don't _like_ us anymore, or that you're too _cool_ to be seen with your teachers!"

"Lotte, please don't crush my son," the amused voice of Admiral Lindy Harlaown said from inside the office. The short-haired familiar's lips formed a pout, but she did get off the Enforcer, allowing him to clamber to his feet with only a faint flush on his cheeks. He straightened his jacket before gesturing for Yuuno to enter the office.

As he did, the young archeologist tried to place the various people sitting around the couch in front of the desk. Admiral Lindy was there, of course, sipping a cup of tea with a smile on her face from one side of the couch. Sitting next to her was a girl Yuuno vaguely remembered as being named Amy something, a member of the Admiral's crew. On the other side of the couch sat another cat familiar, almost identical to the first save for longer hair and a more calm expression. Behind the desk was an older man, wearing a pressed blue uniform much like Admiral Lindy's, who rose when Yuuno entered.

"Mr. Scrya, I presume," he said with a smile. "My name is Admiral Gil Graham; a pleasure to finally meet you in person."

"I… thank you, sir," Yuuno said quickly, causing everyone in the room to laugh again.

"There's no need to be nervous," Admiral Lindy said, gesturing towards the empty center of the couch as Chrono moved to join her and Lotte went with her sister; although Yuuno noticed her eyeing him in a way that reminded him uncomfortably of that one time in Suzuka's house when the cat had tried to eat him. Shaking those thoughts out of his mind, he gingerly moved to sit where the admiral had told him to. Once he was settled, Admiral Graham sat as well and called up a screen above his desk, on that showed a blue and green planet.

"Now that we are all here," he said. "It is time to get down to business." He looked at Yuuno. "As I'm sure you've gathered from those present; this matter has to do with Non-Administrated Planet #97, locally known as Earth."

Yuuno's blood chilled. "Has something gone wrong?" he asked worriedly.

The man smiled. "No, Mr. Scrya, or at least not that the Bureau's aware of. No, the reason for this meeting is to discuss the exploratory expedition that is being sent to study the planet."

"But…" Yuuno said, turning to Admiral Lindy. "I thought you said that nothing was going to happen for a year or so."

She smiled as she poured herself another cup of tea. "That's not quite what I said. What I said was that it was likely nothing official would come of contact with Earth for about a year." She glanced at Graham. "It seems, however, that I underestimated how fascinating the various committees of the Bureau would find Earth. Never have I seen such a determined coalition." She began ticking off fingers. "Half of science division is over the roof about the idea of finally getting a closer look at the pocket dimension phenomenon. The other half is rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of discovering more about Earth's magical system: they were _very_ interested in the way that Ms. Belnades dealt with the Jewel Seeds. Then there are the cultural studies people who believe that Earth is in no way related to the Belkan Empire; and they are very curious about why the people there are so similar biologically."

As she took another sip of tea, Amy continued. "After that, there are the people who believe that, since Earth was advanced enough to deal with a Lost Logia incident with only minimal assistance, they deserve the chance to join the Bureau, while others are worried that Earth poses a security risk that needs to be studied."

Admiral Graham nodded. "As you can tell, with the amount of interest floating around in the Bureau's upper echelons, it was all but inevitable that something would come of the situation. However, after some debate, it was decided that we simply do not have enough information to make a long-reaching decision yet. Therefore, it was decided that a team would be sent to take a longer, closer look at Earth." He leaned his chin on his clasped hands as he studied Yuuno. "After further discussion, we decided that it would be best if as many of the people involved in the original incident were sent back. The _Arthra_ and her crew was ordered to make ready, but then we recalled that there was one more person who was involved."

Yuuno blinked. "So… you want me to go back to Earth?" he asked.

"It is your choice, young man," the admiral said. "You are not a member of the Bureau: if you don't want to be involved, you can get back on the shuttle that brought you here and be back at your dig within hours; no questions asked, no hard feelings. If, however, you wish to join; you will be accepted as a temporary Contract Mage and be assigned to the mission without delay."

The young boy blinked, opening his mouth to accept before a small voice in the back of his mind suggested that he get some clarification. "Will we be spying on Earth?" he asked.

Admiral Lindy spoke up to that. "Our mission will be… complex, I believe the best word for it is," she said. "In part yes, we will by spying on them. However, we will also be dealing openly with those people that already know of our existence; so if you are not comfortable with deceiving your friends you can focus on that side." A soft sigh of relief left Yuuno; he didn't know if he would have been able to bring himself to lie to Nanoha or the others.

"If that's the case, then I'd be happy to come," he said.

"That's wonderful," Admiral Lindy said, smiling. "Of all of us, you're still the one with the greatest knowledge of Earth aside from Admiral Graham, who unfortunately cannot join us."

Admiral Graham smiled sadly. "I was rather hoping that I could join you, but in this case, duty calls. However, if there is any assistance I can grant from here, be sure to send a message."

Yuuno blinked. "What do you mean?" he asked.

The admiral laughed. "Earth is my home planet," he said. "I was born in England, and was scouted by the Bureau after an… unfortunate incident. I'll let Lindy explain the details to you, but I will warn you it was not pleasant."

Admiral Lindy nodded. "Of course," she said before rising to her feet. "Well, now that Mr. Scrya has agreed to accompany us, we should begin preparations. The _Arthra_ should be finished with refits soon, and the crew will be eager to be off."

"Of course, Lindy," the older admiral said, standing and shaking her hand. "I wish you all the best." Then, after shaking both Chrono and Yuuno's hands as well, he pulled up another screen and started to work on something.

"Bye, cuties," Lotte said cheerfully as she walked the guests to the door before wrapping an arm around both Yuuno and Chrono's shoulder. "See you soon!" Chrono rolled his eyes slightly as Yuuno squirmed his way out of the catgirl's grip. Rather than be offended, she simply giggled again and winked at the archeologist, causing his face to heat up.

"Lotte," the other familiar called.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Lotte whined, but she let Chrono go and made her way back into the office, letting the door slide closed behind her.

Admiral Lindy smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry. She enjoys teasing people, but she'd never dream of actually hurting anyone."

"Outside of training," Chrono said as the group set off back down the corridor. "She's merciless when she needs to be."

Amy snorted. "No wonder you have such a sunny disposition," she said.

Yuuno watched as Chrono rolled his eyes again before turning his gaze to the window of the elevator, staring out at the swirls of interdimensional space. Even though he knew that Earth wasn't even on the same plain of existence he currently inhabited, he couldn't help but feel that he was looking towards it, and his friends that lived on it.

"I see you're glad to be going back," Admiral Lindy said quietly.

"I guess I am," he said before bowing his head to hide the slight flush he was sure was appearing. "Sometimes, I get the feeling that I left something unfinished there."

Admiral Lindy chuckled. "Perhaps thinking about a certain young brunette in a new light after six months?" she said sweetly.

Now Yuuno was positive that he was blushing, so he resisted the urge to look up at the admiral. "No, nothing like that!" he said quickly. "It's just… I don't know… after weeks and weeks of searching… it all ended in a few hours, and I was off-planet before I knew it."

"And you're afraid you left a bad impression? That Nanoha might resent you for entering and leaving her life so suddenly?" Admiral Lindy asked. Not trusting himself to speak, Yuuno simply nodded. "I wouldn't worry about that," she continued after a moment. "When you're in my line of work, you learn how to read people pretty fast. From the very first moment I met her, Nanoha struck me as the kind of girl that doesn't hold grudges, especially not against her friends."

Yuuno finally looked up. "I… guess so…" he said. Nanoha had always seemed happy enough in her letters.

Almost as if reading his mind again, Admiral Lindy continued. "So, in your talks with Nanoha, have you heard how Fate is doing?"

"She's doing well," Yuuno said.

"I'm glad to hear that," Admiral Lindy said. "For such a sweet girl to have gone through so much… I truly understand why Nanoha and the others were reluctant to let go of her. It's good to know that we made the right decision."

Yuuno cocked his head. "Did you… get in any trouble for letting her go? I mean, it was sort of a technicality…"

Admiral Lindy laughed. "A few people did raise eyebrows, but in the end it was agreed upon that it was probably for the best not to force the issue, and now that we know she's adjusting well, all the more evidence to that." She looked up as the elevator doors opened. "But enough about that for now, we're almost at the _Arthra_." With that, she led the way out, followed closely by Chrono and Amy.

As Yuuno followed behind them along the long path to the cruiser, however, he heard a sound from behind him. Turning, he barely had time to widen his eyes as an older girl, probably somewhere in her mid teens, stumbled towards him under the massive pile of boxes she was carrying.

"LOOK OUT!" she wailed, finally tripping and tumbling towards Yuuno.

"**Protection!**" Hoplana said quickly, and a green circle appeared between the two. Rapidly taking control of the automatic magic, Yuuno twisted it into a more gentle form, managing to catch all the boxes before they hit the ground as well as halting the girl's tumble, all without moving an inch.

"Mary! Are you alright?" Amy cried, rushing over to help the other girl to stand up.

"Oh, yes, Ms. Amy," Mary said, her cheeks bright red as she bent down and scrambled to pick up the dropped boxes. "I was just hurrying to get the last of my equipment onboard and I thought I could carry it all." She wrung her hands nervously as she looked around. "I'm so sorry."

Admiral Lindy simply smiled. "No harm done, but in future it would probably be best to carry a more manageable amount. We weren't going to leave you behind."

The girl looked away, and if he hadn't been so close Yuuno might not have caught what she said. "I just didn't want to be a bother."

"You won't be," Amy said, standing with the last of the boxes in her hand. "You're one of our best Device Engineers, there's no way you'd be a bother."

Mary looked slightly reassured before glancing at Yuuno, her flush returning. "Are you alright? I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No, no I'm just fine," Yuuno said quickly. "But who are you?"

"Oh, right," she said, shifting the boxes in her hands. "My name is Mariel Atenza, from the Engineering Division. I was assigned to this mission both to make sure that everyone's Devices are in tip-top shapes, as well as to work with some of the equipment." She glanced at her feet. "That's really important, but I'm really interested in learning more about how Earth people focus their magic. I mean, your report mentioned something about a whip…"

Yuuno flinched. "I… think Mr. Belmont won't be particularly happy to let you look at that," he said carefully.

"Yeah, I guess," Mary said before brightening. "Though you're friends with him, right Mr. Scrya? Maybe you could talk him into it."

Yuuno blinked. "I'm… not sure, but I'll give it a try." Personally, he thought he had about as much chance of winning that argument as Al-Hazard had of crawling out of the dimensional void, but he didn't say that bit.

Before anything else could be said, Chrono cleared his throat. "Perhaps we can finish this fascinating conversation onboard the _Arthra_?"

Mary squeaked again. "Yes, yes of course," she said quickly. "I'm so sorry to make everyone wait." With that, she hurried off, followed at a more measured pace by Amy with the rest of the boxes. Chrono huffed and followed soon after, leaving Yuuno and Admiral Lindy alone.

"Well, we should probably get going," she said. "Earth awaits, and I'm sure your friends will be happy to see you." Yuuno couldn't help but smile as he made his way onto the _Arthra_. He was excited to see them as well, and he couldn't wait to see the look on Nanoha's face when she realized that the reason he couldn't send messages was because he'd be there in person.

* * *

When most people thought of the title of Lady, their minds were filled with images of a beautiful, dolled-up young woman from a bygone era. They would think of someone who always got their way and spent more time wondering about what to wear to the next party of her noble peers than anything particularly useful. They certainly never thought that a lady could be found making her way through the woods on foot, at least not by choice.

Lady Sylphina, however, had always enjoyed going against the grain.

"It's lovely out here, don't you think, Spriggan?" she said conversationally as she easily shifted her head to one side to avoid a low-hanging branch. Now that it was just her and her bodyguard, who was still walking several steps behind her, her voice had lost the cool, sharp quality it had taken when speaking with the mysterious Zobek. She was also able to speak in her native tongue, an almost lyrical language that had not been heard by mortals in more than a century. "We had long thought places like this were destroyed; it is wonderful to see they survive."

Spriggan growled slightly. "I still believe that this is a foolish endeavor, my Lady, and that we should return to your lord father's home before anything happens." To look at him, his voice should have been low and deep, befitting his large size. Instead, while clearly male, it was fairly high and song-like, quite pleasant to listen too even when he was annoyed.

The lady sighed as she turned, walking backwards while still avoiding any hazards with impossible grace. "Spriggan, please," she said, the slightest hint of whine in her voice. "If I'd known you were going to be like this for the _entire_ mission, I'd have left you behind."

"You tried that, my Lady," Spriggan snorted. "And as your Shadow, the one order I am permitted to disobey is one that would require me to leave your side."

For some reason, rather than frustrate or annoy Sylphina, it caused her to giggle and suddenly move towards Spriggan, gently running a hand along his cheek. "I know," she said. "And I'm sorry I said that, I shouldn't have. I am truly grateful for your company. This journey is… perhaps a tad lonely." Her hand sifted to a light pinch as Spriggan opened his mouth again. "Not lonely enough to abandon my mission, however," she said sweetly. "I made a promise, Spriggan. You were there, you know I can't disappoint her."

"She is dead, my lady," Spriggan said bluntly, his face completely impassive. "You cannot disappoint the dead."

Sylphina sighed and dropped her hand from Spriggan's cheek. "I know," she said quietly, reaching to the golden chain around her neck and pulling out the object at the end: a beautiful carving of a clawed gauntlet: made of a strange; deep green metal. "But… I still remember it; the day she pushed Stribog into my hand and begged me to promise her…" she shook her head. "I can't turn my back on that, Spriggan. She was my friend."

The man finally allowed a flicker of emotion to cross his face: when his lady was sad, he was sad. "I spoke hastily," he said, a faint hint of sorrow at the back of his voice. "I… do not claim to truly understand your feelings, that is not my place. Still, I will stand by you forever."

"Of course you will, Spriggan," Sylphina said, slipping the necklace off so that she could carry it in her hand as she turned and kept walking. "Now, how long do you think it will be before our knight friends find us?"

Almost as if fate had heard her, the object in her hand flashed. "**Fraulein, achten!**" it said, its voice emotionless but still somehow tense. A moment later, a wave of purple light swept over the pair, turning the world around them into an unnerving shade of semi-twilight.

"Right on time," Sylphina said easily, her eyes sweeping upwards to see a distant flash of red light in the sky. "And it seems that they're just as suspicious as our _friend_ told us." Her eyes widened slightly as a pair of small red lights began making their way towards her, and she raised one hand. "Stribog!"

"**Jawohl, Fraulein!**"

Just as dark green light started to play across the lady, Spriggan stepped forward. "Hold, my lady!" he called, his eyes blazing gold behind the sunglasses. "Do not trouble yourself; I will defend you from those fools that dare to wish you harm." With that, the twin attacks: small metal balls with red light surrounding them, slammed into him.

When the smoke cleared, Spriggan stood firm, his shape having warped. Gone was the human body and suit, and it its place was a hunched, scaled mass. A thick, heavy shell covered most of his back, and both arms ended in a wickedly curved blade. His face was elongated like a large lizard's, and his maw was filled with long, serrated teeth. His legs were similarly armed: bending backwards and tipped with claws that would not have looked out of place on a dinosaur. Extending from both shoulders were two pairs of dragonfly like wings, shining purple and covered in motes of light. A moment later, the wings buzzed to life and Spriggan shot away as fast as a bullet, soaring towards the red light that still hovered above.

"WAIT!" Sylphina cried, raising a hand. If Spriggan heard her, he didn't change his trajectory. "Damn battle rage," she muttered before glancing back at Stribog. "Come on, let's go before he does something we'll all regret later."

"** Jawohl, Fraulein.**"

The dark green light finished covering her before vanishing in a flash, her normal cloths gone and replaced by her Knight's Armor.

It wasn't a complete change from her normal garb, but it was still significant. The blouse had the same basic shape, but it was now dark green, thicker looking, and it hugged her form more tightly than the normal cloth. Around her neck was a black choker with a green tree on the front, just below her chin. Her skirt had also changed color, and was now shortened in the front to end just above her knees while long enough in the back to almost reach her ankles. Her boots hadn't changed much, but they were thicker and reached to her knees, as well as having metal plates attached. Upon her brow, holding back her silver bangs, was a golden tiara with another tree shape at the center, its leaves glittering like emeralds. Her ponytail, which had been held by a simple black band, was now a beautiful flower shape that was large enough to be seen from the front.

Her arm between her shoulders and elbow was now bare, revealing her pale skin, but beginning at the elbow light green gloves covered down to her hands. Most of the gloves, however, were covered by the heavy shape of Stribog. Its form hadn't changed much save to grow larger, as well as cover both arms. The claws, beginning just above Sylphina's wrists, were about a foot-and-a-half long and curved at the end, glittering silver in the light of the sun. Along the gauntlet they were attached to, a raised ridge ran across the top, thick enough at the bottom to support a pair of doors large enough to admit cartridges and long enough to hold four. Beautiful swirls covered the rest of the Armed Device, giving it the appearance of waves on a lake. This was more than a weapon: it was a work of art, and the reminder of an ancient promise.

As Sylphina's eyes rose to look at the distant shapes, a soft green glow came from behind her. Her Knight's Armor had no back, leaving a strip skin uncovered. This was another feature carried over from her normal garb: though the mantle that had covered her bare back was nowhere in sight. The glow, however, was coming from her skin, and a moment later it formed into a pair of massive, transparent wings. Shaped like those of a butterfly, they reached down to her knees and up to just above her head, and glowed just like her guard's. However, the color, rather than his subdued purple, was a glorious mixture of every shade of green.

Still, as she lifted off and flapped them once, shooting off even faster than her guard, it was clear they were not just for show.

Meanwhile, high above, Spriggan had reached his target: a short girl with red hair and cloths, carrying a mallet. "You will not harm my Lady," he growled, his golden eyes blazing with rage.

The girl's own blue eyes widened slightly before narrowing. "Finally, something resembling a challenge," she shot back, raising a hand to summon several more metal balls between her fingers. "Graf Eisen!"

"**Schwalbenfliegen!**" her Device said as she swung it, sending the four attacks on their way. Spriggan didn't flinch, one arm-blade shifting to form a long, whip-like protrusion that swung, swatting each of the balls out of the air as he advanced rapidly.

"STOP! THAT'S AN ORDER!" Sylphina shouted as she arrived in a blur of green, her wings flapping as she grabbed Spriggan's shoulder. He instantly came to a halt, but his eyes remained fixed on the girl as his lady turned to face her and spoke again. "_Guten Tag, Rittern. Ich will keinen Konflikt zwischen uns_."

The girl, who seemed to have been preparing another attack, reeled. "_Sie sprechen die Sprache der Belka?_" she asked, unconsciously slipping into the same language.

"Yes, I do," Sylphina said, still using that tongue as she gliding over to position herself between the little knight and Spriggan. "Please, I have an important…"

"It doesn't matter," the girl said, deliberately switching back to Japanese. "I have nothing to say to you. If you are truly a knight, then let your Armed Device speak for you. Graf Eisen!"

"**Jawohl!**"

Sylphina sighed. "Of course," she muttered in her own tongue, much different from either Belkan or Japanese. Still, she switched back to the language of knights as she spoke again. "I am Sylphina, Knight of the Dancing Winds, and this is Stribog. Let us duel, and should I prove victorious, you will listen to my words."

After a moment, the girl snorted. "I am Vita, Knight of the Iron Hammer," she said in Belkan, "…and this is Graf Eisen. Let us duel, and should I prove victorious I shall take what I have earned." Sylphina smiled and waved Spriggan back. He didn't look happy, but he knew how important things like this were to his lady, and thus he drifted back, though he promised himself that, should it seem his lady was in mortal danger, not even the constraints of honor would prevent him from protecting her.

The two knights sized each other up for a long moment before Vita began, sending another wave of Schwalbenfliegen towards her opponent. "**Seitenwinde!**" Stribog said as Sylphina made three quick slashing motions. Waves of green light flashed out, cutting through most of the flying balls and continuing on towards Vita. The final ball almost reached Sylphina, but her arm flicked out and Stribog's claws struck it out of the air.

Vita, meanwhile, had dodged the unguided slashes and was closing with Sylphina, a cartridge exploding from Graf Eisen. "**Raketenform!**" the hammer called, reshaping into its missile-like shape and rocketing towards the woman.

"**Panzerschild!**" Stribog said as Sylphina raised her hand, forming a tilted barrier, causing Vita to skim off, her Device unable to get a solid hit that might have shattered the lady's defense. Before the fast-moving knight could fully turn, Sylphina was in pursuit, a cartridge of her own exploding from the ridge on the back of her gauntlets. "**Sturm Schlag!**" The claws glowed a bright green as she blasted forward with another flap of her wings, swinging them at Vita.

The smaller knight was ready, however, and spun around, Graf Eisen's rocket flaring again. Just before the charged claws hit her, the golden spike of her own Device slammed into them and the power of two cartridges exploded in both of their faces.

Sylphina let out a hiss of pain as she was blasted back, flapping her wings to steady herself. They were not physical, for which she was grateful as they would have been shredded by the force of the blast. As it was, she was able to bring her tumble back under control and look around for Vita, finding her rocketing forward once again, another cartridge popping out of Graf Eisen to retain it's Raketenform.

'She's good,' Sylphina thought, a small grin appearing on her face as she flapped her wings and started moving backwards, forcing Vita to dodge with a wave of Seitenwinde attacks. Her eyes flicked to Spriggan, who was still following, but for the moment he seemed to be willing to let her fight on her own. 'It's been too long since I faced a knight, I guess I'm a bit out of practice.'

However, Sylphina still had several tricks to pull out. Dipping down towards the trees, she began gathering the magic of her bloodline rather than that of a Belkan knight.

"Get back here!" Vita called as Sylphina flapped her wings just seconds before the little redhead hit her, jerking off to one side and continuing to dip. "You challenged me! You're not allowed to run away!"

"I'm not running away," Sylphina said, avoiding another charge as the tops of the trees surrounded them, forcing Vita to detour slightly so as not to waste momentum. "I am simply initiating an offensive in an advantageous direction."

"**Seitenwinde!**" Stribog called again, though this time its attack was launched at the ground, kicking up a massive cloud of dirt and smoke around Vita that blocked her view. Growling, the knight realized that pressing on without being able to see was a good way to fly into a trap. "Howl, Eisen!" she hissed, holding her Device above her head.

"**Jawohl!**" Graf Eisen said before letting out a wave of force, clearing the annoyance easily. However, the winged girl was nowhere in sight. Growling in frustration, Vita shot off looking for her.

Sylphina, meanwhile, had dismissed one of Stribog's gauntlet/claws and was running a gentle hand along a tree. "Hear me, little spirit," she whispered in her own language. "You are young; separated from where you were truly meant to be. This shadow realm is not your home; and you are frightened." She gently pressed her forehead against the bark. "Help me, and I will make sure you and your grove are returned unharmed. Please, grant my wish."

A moment later, she lifted her head away. Right were her tiara had been touching, a glowing green outline of the tree was shining against the bark of the tree. After a second, it faded into the tree, and the leaves shifted slightly. "Thank you," Sylphina said before peeking out, making sure that Vita wasn't still around. After noting that the red-clad knight was going in the opposite direction, Sylphina made her way to the next tree and repeated her ritual.

After a minute, Vita was getting frustrated. "Hey, you!" she shouted at the hovering shape that had first tried to fight her. "Where's your 'lady' at?" The figure simply glared at her with those glowing eyes, not saying a word.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Sylphina said as she appeared back above the treeline. "Seitenwinde!"

Rolling out of the way of the air slashes, Vita was very, very tempted to finally go all out and _end_ this. She forced that thought down, however, as the face of a young girl swam through her mind. Cursing under her breath, she instead countered with a wave of Schwalbenfliegen to let her close the distance with another Raketenform. Once again, the pretty-girl gave space, her wings beating to keep her out of Vita's way as they sunk back into the trees.

Finally, however, she made a mistake and stayed still a moment too long. "Graf Eisen!" Vita howled, accelerating even faster.

"**Panzergeist!**" Stribog called, forming a heavy barrier just as Vita hit.

"BREAK! THROUGH! IT!"

Another cartridge popped out of Graf Eisen and the engine roared, causing cracks to begin to form.

However, Vita realized too late that this was forcing her to stay still.

"Now!" Sylphina called from within her failing barrier, and a moment later strings of green light flashed out from the half-dozen tree spirits that she had convinced to aid her, grabbing Vita and holding her in place. They weren't very strong, but they did allow Sylphina to disengage her defense and raise her claws. "Hold her, Stribog!"

"**Flaute!**" Another series of bindings appeared around Vita just as the trees ran out of energy, keeping her bound. "**Sturm Schlag!**"

Vita braced herself for the hit… only to have Sylphina lightly tap her on the nose. "Do you yield?" she asked in Belkan.

Vita was sorely tempted to say something she'd probably regret a moment later, but she was able to force that down. Without any of her companions around, this girl had her. "Fine," she muttered.

"Thank you," the silver-haired woman said, dismissing her bindings and nodding towards the ground. "Let's land and talk, alright?" Vita nodded jerkily and followed Sylphina. As they landed, the lady turned. "Oh, you should probably release your Dimensional Barrier; I promised the tree spirits I'd get them back to where they were supposed to be."

Vita glared at her for a long moment before jerking Graf Eisen, and a moment later the sky cleared. "Happy?" she asked.

Sylphina sighed. "I don't want to hurt you," she said quietly. "You don't have to be afraid of me."

"I'm not afraid," Vita said automatically. The woman simply studied her before shaking her head.

"Well, no matter," she said. "Will you listen to me now?"

"Sure," Vita said. She may not like the pretty-girl much, but she had won, and just listening to her couldn't be that bad.

The woman smiled. "Thank you, Vita," she said, pure gratitude in her voice. "I've been waiting to deliver this message for almost three centuries."

The girl's eyes widened slightly. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

Sylphina couldn't help but laugh. "I'm sorry," she said. "I guess I should start at the beginning." She took a breath before continuing. "About five hundred years ago, five Belkan Knights on a survey mission first discovered this planet, and they decided to explore. By some cruel twist of fate, they happened to land right in the middle of an army of the forces of darkness. They all but wiped that army out, likely saving countless lives, but four were killed and the only survivor, Knight Captain Klaudia Kappel, would have died of her wounds if I hadn't found her and brought her home to heal."

"But who are you?" Vita asked.

Sylphina smiled and curtsied, her lovely wings appearing for a moment. "I am Lady Sylphina of the Feylands, at your service," she said before gesturing to her guard, who had resumed his human form. "And this is Spriggan, my Shadow."

Despite herself, Vita found herself curious. "How does he make himself look human?" she asked.

"He's a Changeling Alpha," Sylphina said. "He has no 'true' shape, just whatever he feels is best for the current situation, and he's better at shifting than normal changelings." She shook her head. "But I digress, I was telling you why I'm here. Well, once Klaudia had recovered, we realized that she wouldn't be able to get back anytime soon: their ship had been destroyed during the fighting and Klaudia couldn't Dimensionally Transfer on her own. She'd have to wait for someone to come get her." Sylphina laughed bitterly. "I admit, I was happy. I was so curious about a world beyond this planet, so I was glad that she was going to stay a while, and like the selfish little girl I was, I hoped that it would be a long time before she left, maybe even forever… and I guess I got that wish."

"They never came," Vita said. It wasn't a question.

"No, they never did. Fifty years passed, then a hundred, and still no sign of anyone. Klaudia was sure that the message she and the others had sent about the planet had made it through, so she couldn't understand what was taking so long." She sighed. "It was around the hundred year mark that her health started failing. The Feylands are awash with magic, enough that even morals live much longer lives than normal… but not even we can ward off death forever. Klaudia, fearing that she would never return home, became determined to ensure that _something_ of her survived. It wasn't hard for me to convince her to teach me to be a knight, something I'd wanted for some time. I like to think it helped her stay sane, the knowledge that she was doing something rather than just sitting around." Sylphina held up Stribog. "This was her device, and she spent the next century teaching me everything I know about being a knight. Still, I knew she hoped that… somehow, someday, someone would come for her… she wanted to see Belka again."

Vita couldn't help but feel a flash of pity for the dead knight, and even a little for the fairy as she stared off into the distance; her green eyes dull. "I'm sorry," the redhead said.

Sylphina didn't seem to hear her. "About ten years before her death, she was just too weak to train with me anymore. I continued to work with her, trying to keep her mind off what we all knew was coming. Then… one night, she called me to her. She was so pale. She held on to Stribog whenever she could, so she had it with her, but as soon as I arrived she pushed it into my hand… and begged me to promise her that, no matter what, I would find a way to inform Belka of what had happened…that she and her comrades fought until the end: they didn't run and hide. I promised… and she died a minute later." She looked back at Vita. "I have carried that promise for three hundred years, and now I finally get the chance to fulfill it. Lady Knight, help me get in contact with Belka, so that I can tell them. It doesn't matter if no one cares anymore; if Klaudia and her companions have been forgotten… someone has to know."

The red knight huffed and leaned on Graf Eisen. "Well, I can't help you there," she said. "The reason they never came was because the Belkan Empire fell five hundred years ago, and the last remnants collapsed about a hundred years ago. There's no one left to talk to."

Sylphina's breath caught. "You… can't mean that," she said. "We thought there was just some communication error… something…"

"I'm afraid not," Vita said. "The reason the Belkan Empire never came for your friend is because there is no Belkan Empire, and let's say that the current regime and I don't exactly get alone. Besides, I doubt they'd be interested in a single team of old knights who died way out here five centuries ago."

After a long moment of silence, Sylphina turned and walked a short distance away before resting her forehead against a nearby tree. Immediately, her guard moved to stand between her and Vita. The small knight chuckled darkly: this guy was a true bodyguard: didn't trust anyone. She could respect that; she'd have done the same if it were Hayate.

Several minutes passed before the fairy lady moved again, rising to her full height and turning back to Vita. Her eyes were dry, but it was clear that she had simply internalized her emotions for the moment. "I apologize for the delay," she said formally. "Still, there is one more thing that I wish to discuss. I know a little of your mission: that you seek to save the life of a girl. I want to aid you in this mission."

Vita's shoulder's tensed as Graf Eisen rose slightly. "Why?" she snapped. "Why do you care?"

Sylphina didn't seem offended by Vita's tone, though it was possible she was simply good enough to not let it touch her face. "You are a Belkan Knight," she said. "And you're trying to protect a child. Some of my kind would be quite willing to let her die, but I do not hate and fear mortals the way they do, though I understand their reasons." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Another reason is that, to obtain the information of where I needed to go to meet you, I had to promise that I would help you. That is also how I knew about your mission."

"Wait, you're saying you were out here _looking_ for me?" Vita asked, her blood chilling. Only her fellow Wolkenritter knew that she was going to be out here, and _none_ of them would have told anyone else. "Who told you?!"

The woman's smile sharpened. "Someone I admit I do not completely trust, though he has given me good information," she said, raising Stribog and displaying an image. "He calls himself Zobek, and he is very, very powerful. He was able to penetrate my father's fortress without incident, something long believed impossible." She sighed. "His every prediction has turned out to be correct, and I'm afraid that worries me more than it impresses me."

"I've never seen him before," Vita said after a moment. "Did he have anything else to say?" 'Does he knew who Hayate is?'

Sylphina nodded. "He insisted that you and your three companions would need my help, and that there will be a terrible battle before this year reaches its end. Other than that, not much."

Vita did some quick math in her head: it was possible that, if they hurried, the Wolkenritter could fill the Book before the year's end. It'd be tricky, but it was possible. Still, that left the immediate problem at hand. "Why should I trust you?" she asked.

"In the end, you can't be positive," Sylphina said simply. "But I swear, I am here to help you." She took a step back. "Still, this is probably something you'll want to talk to your companions and liege about. I'll return here tomorrow at this time, and the day after, until you either tell me that you do not need my help or accept it."

"And if we do say no?" Vita shot back.

"I'll stay in the city, just in case," Sylphina said, her voice still completely calm. "At least until the new year. If you change your mind, you'll be able to find me." She turned to leave, but paused. "Still… if you see Zobek, be careful. I just… get a bad feeling about him. He knows too much and asks too little." With that, her Knight's Armor faded and her wings spread again, lifting her gracefully into the air and propelling her back towards the city. Spriggan studied Vita for a long moment before turning and flying after his mistress.

Vita stayed still for a minute longer before she turned and flew away herself. She still had a few hours of hunting time before she would meet up with the others. She hoped they would know what to do about the fairy knight and her mysterious informant.

* * *

For as long as she had remembered, Suzuka had wondered how exactly she was supposed to relate to the humans around her. If most people knew she thought that, they'd be confused since she looked like a human herself. However, this was not the case: Suzuka, like all her family, was a vampire. Of course, she was one of the more gentle day-vampires, but she still depended upon human blood to survive.

This, of course, was the reason for her dilemma. Everyone she knew; except for her elder sister, aunt, and the two maids that served her family, was human. Thus, it made sense for her to have human friends. Then, she'd remember that she was a vampire, and thus humans were… were kind of her _food_. True, she didn't have to hurt them: the Tsukimura family had made many donations to the local hospitals over the years and had friends there who were willing to allow them access to the excess blood, but Suzuka still drank human blood. Sometimes, she found herself wondering if she was _really_ friends with humans, or whether her instincts were simply causing her to put them at ease until the right time to strike.

Before these dark thoughts could consume her, however, she would remember Arisa and Nanoha. They knew what she was, but still, they cared for her. True, Arisa had been… understandably nervous when she had first found out, but she'd come to accept Suzuka. The young vampire's friends meant everything to her.

That's why it hurt to see Arisa like this. For the past six months, she had grown more and more… grumpy was a poor word for it, but she clearly wasn't happy, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Nanoha, bless her, didn't seem to have noticed yet, but to Suzuka it was clear that the American girl was worried about something. Several times, the young vampire had tried to get her friend to open up, but the blonde had always forced a smile and assured Suzuka that nothing was wrong, and she usually would be a bit happier for a week or two. Now… Suzuka didn't think it would be so easy after what had just happened.

"Arisa, what's wrong?" she whispered, not knowing a better way to bring up the subject.

"What?" Arisa said, blinking as her mind caught up with what Suzuka had said. "Oh, nothing, nothings wrong."

Suzuka wasn't buying it this time. "That's not true, Arisa," she said quietly, marking the page in the book she was reading for a school project and closing it with a snap. "Please, talk to me. You're my friend, I want to help you."

For a moment, Suzuka thought Arisa was going to keep denying, but the blonde sighed and dropped her head onto her own book. "I… I'm scared, Suzuka," she whispered. "Do you remember what it was like six months ago? Not just that last night, though that was the worst, but even before that…"

"Yeah," Suzuka said, silently cursing herself for not pressing the issue sooner. Arisa had clearly needed this talk.

"I mean, Nanoha wasn't going to school, so all we got was calls when she wasn't busy," Arisa said. "And we _knew_ what she was up against. Every day, I was scared that someone would come by and tell us… tell us that we'd never see her again." The blonde hugged herself, her head still down. "And now it might all be starting again…"

Suzuka got up and moved around the table, wrapping an arm around Arisa's shoulder. "She'll be fine, Arisa," she whispered. "Nanoha will be just fine, just like she was last time."

Had she not been a vampire, Suzuka might not have heard Arisa's mutter. "No thanks to me." The blonde must have noticed the confused twitch in Suzuka's arm because she continue a moment later. "Your family was able to give shelter last time... mine doesn't even know about any of this: you, Nanoha, anything. I don't even want to think about what mom would say if she knew my best friends are a vampire and a magical girl."

A slight chill passed through Suzuka. "Do you regret it?" she asked.

Arisa looked up, her eyes flashing. "No!" she hissed. "You and Nanoha are my friends, and I'll _never_ regret that." She sighed. "I just wish I wasn't so useless."

Suzuka shook her head. "You're not useless, Arisa!" she said. "You're a wonderful friend!"

"A wonderful friend who can't do anything," Arisa shot back. "If anything were to happen, I'd be he girl who got everyone hurt just by being there because everyone would have to look after me."

Suzuka didn't know what to say to that. On the one hand, she wanted to completely deny Arisa's words; but she was a fundamentally honest girl on most matters, and in her heart of hearts she had to admit that Arisa had a point. So instead she shifted the conversation. "I wouldn't do any better," she said. "Nanoha's on a completely different level from me; not even big sister Shinobu would be able to do much." Arisa looked like she was opening her mouth to answer when her eyes drifted past Suzuka and widened slightly. Turning, Suzuka saw what her friend had notices.

A girl with short brown hair in a wheel chair was sitting nearby, reaching for a book on a shelf. Her fingers looked like they were mere inches from the book, but it didn't seem that her legs would support her enough to reach.

Arisa's chair scraped slightly as she got up and made her way towards the girl, followed by Suzuka. "Which one do you need?" Arisa asked when she arrived, causing the girl to look up.

"Oh, that one," she said, pointing. Arisa nodded and picked the book off the shelf and handed it to the girl, who smiled widely. "Thank you. I'm with Shamal, but she's over that way and I didn't want to disturb her."

"It's alright," Suzuka said, smiling. "What's your name?"

"I'm Yagami Hayate," the girl said, bowing as much as she could. "What are your names?"

"My name is Tsukimura Suzuka, and this is my friend Bannings Arisa," Suzuka said as Arisa gave a wave.

Hayate nodded before cocking her head. "I think I've seen you around here before, do you come often?"

"Fairly often," Suzuka said. "I think I've seen you several times as well."

"That's right," Hayate said. "It's kind of strange that we've never spoken before." She smiled. "Well, I guess we don't have to worry about that anymore."

Just then, the three girls heard footsteps making their way over. When Suzuka looked up, she saw a lovely woman with short blonde hair making her way over before coming to a halt.

"Oh, Hayate," she said. "Are these friends of yours?"

"New ones, yes," Hayate said happily. "Suzuka, Arisa, this is Shamal, one of my dear relatives. Shamal, this is Suzuka and Arisa. I hope we all get along."

The woman smiled, but as Suzuka looked at her the young vampire couldn't help but get a strange feeling about her. She banished those thoughts from her mind, however, as Shamal spoke. "I'm so glad you've made some friends, Hayate," she said. "But I'm afraid we should get going; we still need to go shopping for ingredients for dinner tonight."

Hayate nodded. "Oh right," she said, a playful smirk crossing her face. "After what happened when you tried cooking unsupervised last night…"

"That was a complete accident!" Shamal said, her cheeks flushing red, causing the three girls to giggle.

"That's alright, Shamal," Hayate said. "I know you did your best, but perhaps you should leave it to me tonight." Shamal's blush deepened as Hayate turned back to Suzuka and Arisa. "It was nice meeting you, and I hope we can talk again sometime." With that, she let the blonde woman push her wheelchair out of the library.

The remaining two girls slowly made their way back to their table. "Well, she seemed nice enough," Arisa said, seeming to have temporarily forgotten about her troubles.

However, as Suzuka happened to look back, she noticed Shamal looking over her shoulder at her with a strange look on her face, and a strange chill passed through her.

* * *

Several hours later, two silent figures stood atop a hill, watching a train speed its way towards Uminari. As the train shot past, the shorter of the two, a woman with long, bright red hair and a red and black dress looked up at the other and snorted.

"I still don't understand why we had to wait for the train to pass," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "My minions hunger for blood."

"I am well aware what they hunger for," the other figure said, his voice cold and even as it came from beneath his black hood. "I commanded them long before you were even a glimmer in your ancestor's eyes." He looked down at Natasha, revealing a bleached skull and empty eyes. "As for the reason for my plan, all will be made clear in good time, after you prove yourself worthy." He gestured with a bony hand. "Your first proof comes now. Do it."

Rolling her eyes, the woman raised a hand; her long, sharpened nails painted blood red. "I summon thee, denizen of Hell," she intoned. "Come forth into this mortal plain and bring your darkness and your evil with you. So say I, Natasha Galkin."

As she spoke, a circle of fire had drawn itself in the air before her; a swirling portal expelling the scent of brimstone. A moment later, a dark roar answered her call and a shape clawed itself from the circle: a mighty Fire Demon. Turning, it glared at Natasha, raising a flaming hand.

She simply glared back. "You are mine, demon," she said. "Obey me." The pair stared at each other for a moment longer before the demon bowed its head in defeat. She smirked. "Good boy, remind me to give you a treat later. Now, go destroy that rail line." The demon obeyed, flapping its flaming wing and making its way down the hill.

"Impressive," Death said quietly.

"For most, maybe," Natasha said, idly brushing her hair back as the demon set to work. "But for me, it's simply normal." Her smirk widened. "After all, I was born the hour of Dracula's death. It's only natural that I would be exceptional."

Death was silent for a minute, his eyes on the chaos being wreaked below. Finally, after the section of track was in ruins, he spoke. "Your work is done. Proceed to Uminari, I will have further tests for you there." Natasha rolled her eyes before gesturing with a hand. Another circle appeared behind the demon, sucking it back into Hell. With that done, she muttered something and pointed beneath her, another circle forming before causing her to disappear in a flash of darkness.

Death shook his head before snapping his fleshless fingers and vanishing himself for parts unknown. He had business he had to attend to before returning to Uminari himself; business that, with any luck, be the first steps in a plan that would change the world forever.

* * *

"Fate!" Nanoha cried as she ran up to the blonde girl and gave her a hug. "It's so good to see you!"

"You too, Nanoha," Fate said, returning the shorter girl's embrace.

Arf snorted. "What about me?" she grumbled good-naturedly, adjusting the hat she wore to hide her ears. Nanoha remembered the time that she had made the trip in her puppy form, and thus wasn't surprised that she had decided to go as a human.

Nanoha flushed. "Oh, I'm sorry, Arf," she said quickly. "It's good to see you too."

"Hey, I'm just teasing you," Arf said, reaching out and giving Nanoha a quick rub on the head. "It's good to see you again."

Fate's smile dipped slightly. "Soma told us about Yuuno," she said quietly, patting Nanoha on the shoulder. "I'm sure he's alright."

"I hope so," Nanoha said as she made her way over to her father, Yoko, and Soma, who were talking quietly a short distance away. "I hope so."

She noticed that Soma was talking on his phone, his eyes narrowed. "What's wrong?" he was asking. Before Nanoha could hear who was on the other end; the station-wide intercom came on. However, rather than a normal cool, modulated voice, it was a worried man.

"May I have your attention please," the man said. "I'm afraid that no trains will be entering or leaving Uminari for the foreseeable future. There has… there has been an incident. More information is not available at this time, but I repeat, no trains will be entering or leaving Uminari Station until further notice. We apologize for any delays."

Nanoha's blood chilled. "What happened?" she whispered.

Soma held up a single finger as he listened to his phone for a while longer before nodding sharply. "Will do," he said, then hung up and turned to Nanoha. "There's been a lot of damage on the tracks, unnatural damage," he said grimly. "Arikado's sent some people out to take a look, but he wants me to stay here until further notice. It's too close, too soon."

"Do you think it's related to all this?" Fate whispered.

Soma shrugged, his eyes flicking around the nervous crowd. "I'm not sure, but I don't think it's safe to believe in coincidences right now," he said. "We should get out of here." He glanced at Nanoha's father. "Are the wards at your home still running?"

"They are," Shiro Takamachi said. After the events of six months ago, some work had been put in to strengthen the Takamachi house's wards; which had been little more than an alarm system. They were still no match for most powerful threats, but they would give the inhabitance time to prepare and/or call for help.

"Good," Soma said. "I'll make sure everyone gets there, then I'm going to poke around the city a bit. Don't worry, I'll never be too far away to get there in a hurry." Everyone nodded as the group quickly made their way out of the station; avoiding the stirring chaos the announcement had ushered in.

Several minutes later, everyone had arrived at the Takamachi home. True to his word, Soma had soon headed back into the city, leaving Yoko behind to keep watch. However, Nanoha did her best to keep dark thoughts out of her mind: whatever was coming; she would be ready to face it when it did. Until then, she could spend time with her dear friend.

Before that, however, her father took her aside while Miyuki cooed over Fate and Arf. "How are you feeling?" he asked quietly.

"Alright," Nanoha said.

He studied her for a long moment before sighing. "You want to get involved, don't you." It wasn't a question.

"…I want to help people," Nanoha said, holding up Raising Heart. "I have this power, it would feel… selfish, to just hoard it to myself and not use it when people are in trouble."

A soft laugh came from Shiro as he ran a hand along his daughter's head before pulling her into a hug. "Sometimes, Nanoha, I think your mother and I might have raised you too well," he said. "I know you well enough to know that you're not the type to back down, so I won't try to stop you. Still, I will ask that you be very, very careful. If whoever's behind all this did carry out the attack on the railway, then they're not afraid to put people at risk to achieve their goals. Whatever you do, don't wander off on your own: if you're going to do this, work with the others."

"I will," Nanoha promised.

"Then we won't say anything more until we know more about the situation." He nodded over Nanoha's shoulder. "If you're interested in saving people, I think your friend needs some help; you know how clingy Miyuki gets when she's decided something's cute." Nanoha giggled at the sight of Arf, in her puppy form, being cuddled mercilessly by her older sister as Fate looked on, smiling. As Nanoha made her way over, she couldn't help but be glad that the blonde's eyes were happy now. What would come would come, and Nanoha would be ready to face it when it came.

As the sun set, Nanoha couldn't shake the feeling that it would be coming soon; that this was the calm before the storm.

* * *

As the moon hung over the city, three figures were gathered atop one of the last skyscrapers before Uminari's residential district. One was Vita, the short red-clad knight. Another was a massive blue and white wolf with fangs that jutted out of his mouth. The last was a tall, pink-haired woman with a ponytail, who was listening silently as Vita finished her report of the day's events.

After a moment, she spoke; her voice cool and collected. "You made sure you were not followed."

"Of course I did, Signum" Vita said. "Four separate Transfers, and I kept my eyes open." She glanced at the wolf. "Zafira, do you smell anything?"

"Not a thing," the wolf said. "I believe Vita was able to shake this knight off, if she was following to begin with."

Signum nodded, turning her gaze to the moon. "Vita, you're the only one who has spoken to her, do you believe she is a threat?"

The red knight sighed. "I don't know but… but I don't think so," she said. "She was defiantly speaking old Belkan, not the modern variant, so I'm pretty sure that this isn't a Bureau trap. Still, are we willing to risk Hayate's safety on a guess?"

The Wolkenritter leader nodded slowly. "That's true," she said. "Still, this complicates matters greatly. The fact that this Zobek knows as much as he does about our mission is… troubling." She looked back down with narrowed eyes. "We must accelerate our mission. Vita, do you have a trace on the power source that we detected earlier?"

Vita blinked. "I thought we'd agreed not to hunt too close to Hayate," she said warily.

"Yes, we did, but the situation has changed. Now, we need to fill the Book as soon as possible; and that source will probably contain more than twenty pages. It's too good a chance to let slip away." She took a deep breath before placing her hand on the hilt of the sword at her side. "We leave nothing to chance. The three of us will attack together, and we will disable the target quickly and efficiently. Are you both ready?" The others nodded grimly, Vita raising Graf Eisen and Zafira simply bearing his teeth. "Then let's go."

Three blurs of light, red, blue and purple, took off, making their way towards their target.

The storm was on the move.

_AN: Sorry if the German I used is terrible: I took it in high-school but I'm not really up to snuff, so I used a translation program. And more new characters, yay!_


	3. A Battle in Darkness

AN: _OMGOMGOMGOMGOHMYGOD!_ Someone gave Lyrics of Sorrow it's own TV Tropes page! Thank you so much! I wasn't going to update this until after I'd done some other story chapters, but after that I had to put this chapter out!

Review Response:

Krazyfanfiction1: Happy to know you're still enjoying the story. Yeah, I guess it is a bit harder to remember Nanoha and Fate are young without seeing them; they do take on burdens children shouldn't have to. Well, at least they have friends to support them. On that note, yes Soma will use some of his more interesting souls, in fact he uses one of them this chapter : ).

MangamanZX: I can neither confirm nor deny that Suzuka will be attacked or that Arisa will become a ghost (whistles innocently).

edboy4926: Thanks. Yes, I am considering doing something for Strikers and calling it LoS, ShadowStar. However, I'm having a bit of trouble with ideas.

Jouaint: Thanks.

Chapter 3: A Battle in Darkness

'This is madness! We agreed that…' Shamal spluttered over the mental link, her eyes watching Hayate move around the kitchen with a grace that most wouldn't expect from a girl in a wheelchair.

'I know, Shamal,' Signum said grimly. 'But situations change, we're running out of time. Besides, if we continue to avoid this city, then someone might make a connection we don't want them to.' A moment passed before the leader continued, her voice slightly more gentle. 'I know you're worried about our Mistress' well-being, we all are, but we have no choice. We must end this sooner rather than later.'

Shamal suppressed a sigh, grateful that Hayate happened to have her back turned at the moment. 'I know, I know,' she said.

There was a moment of silence before Signum continued. 'Is there… something you wish to report?' she asked.

For a moment, the blonde knight considered keeping the information she had discovered to herself, but she took a breath and spoke, praying that Hayate would be able to forgive her someday for what she was about to do. 'If we're accepting targets in Uminari, then I found another one,' she said quietly. 'I'd guess about five pages.' As she said this, she sent the image of the young purple-haired girl to the other knight, along with the details of their meeting.

'…We'll discuss your concerns later,' Signum said. 'For now, you should focus on looking after our Mistress. We'll be back soon… this won't take long.' With that, Signum closed the mental connection, leaving Shamal alone with their mistress, who had just happened to look up.

"Shamal, are you all right?" she asked, putting the lid back on the pot she was observing and wheeling herself around the counter. "You look pale. I'm sorry I teased you this morning."

The knight forced a smile onto her face as she moved forward and knelt down to Hayate's eye level. "I'm alright, Mistress Hayate," she said. "I was just talking to Signum, and she said that she and the others would be back soon."

The girl sighed. "They're out training again?" she asked. "You've all been doing that so much recently… it's been so long since the last time we all were able to be together at night…"

Flinching at the tone of Hayate's voice, Shamal reached out and cupped the girl's cheeks. "I'm sorry, Hayate," she said. "I know how much times like this mean to you, and the others do too."

"Then why are you gone so often?" the girl asked, and Shamal's heart clenched at the sad tone of her little Mistress' voice. "All I want is for you all to be with me. I know most of you work during the day, but I…" the girl lowered her head, looking like she was about to cry.

"And we want to be with you," Shamal said reassuringly. "But… we're old, Hayate, old and set in our ways. It feels... strange, to not be training. We're not unhappy!" the woman said, seeing the hurt look in her Mistress's eyes, "We love being with you, being able to live in peace; but we've been fighting most of our lives, so I'm afraid it will take us some time to fully adapt." Hayate cocked her head as Shamal took a deep breath. "More than that… we're scared, Mistress Hayate. You've been so good to us, so kind… we're scared that something might happen and you'll be taken away. We'd never forgive ourselves if something were to happen and we weren't ready to protect you."

Hayate blinked as she looked up at Shamal. "What could possibly happen?" she asked. "The Book isn't being used, there's no need for any of this."

"The Bureau doesn't know that," Shamal said, hoping that Hayate wouldn't think any more about what she'd said. "And because every one of our masters before you had us fill the Book, I doubt they would take any chances. If they ever find us, they _will_ attack us to try and get to you. We hope that we never see them again; Earth is a Non-Administrated World so they may never come here… but we really do think that that news report showed us showed Bureau mages doing something." A few weeks after they had arrived, a long report had been broadcasted about certain events that had taken place in Uminari just before the Wolkenritter had awakened, though it had been short on details and long on speculation since no one who seemed to know what was going on had deigned to comment. That just put the Wolkenritter more on edge.

Shamal shook those thoughts out of her head as she continued. "But if they do, we don't want to be in a situation where we have to say: 'If only we'd trained harder, Mistress Hayate wouldn't have been hurt.'" She smiled sadly. "So please, Mistress, please understand that we… we do this because we love you, and we couldn't bear to lose you."

After a moment, the girl smiled and wrapped her arms around Shamal. "I can't stay upset with any of you," she said, burying her face into the knight's shoulder with a contented sigh. "Just… please promise me that none of you will do anything rash. I don't want to lose any of you either."

Shamal's smile faded and it took all her will not to flinch as waves of guilt broke over her at the knowledge of what she and her companions had already done… and what they planned to do. "We promise," she said, returning the embrace so as to keep the girl from looking her in the eye. 'Oh, Hayate,' she thought. 'Please forgive us…'

* * *

At the Takamachi household, the evening was winding down. Dinner had been a warm affair as the two youngest girls talked about their magic lessons. Nanoha was so glad that she didn't have to hide her abilities anymore. It had been exciting during the first few weeks, knowing that she was doing something important without having to tell her parents, but the more she looked back on it the more she realized it would have burned her out. Being forced to constantly hide what she was up to from her family would have grown exhausting; especially once things started getting… _ugly_. Nanoha had no idea how those magical girls in the mangas made it look so easy, leading a double life. No, it was far better this way; able to tell her family everything and trusting them to understand her passion.

No one discussed the events that had occurred earlier today, or what might happen in the future. Nanoha could tell that her mother especially was worried, but everyone was content to leave the issue alone for the time being.

Finally, however, someone had to mention the elephant in the room, or rather the one that wasn't there. "I wonder where Soma is?" Yoko said worriedly as she tried to convince Momoko to let her help with the cleanup, only to be rebuffed as a guest. "I would have thought he'd be back by now."

"I think he's worried," Fate said, having also been driven out of the kitchen. "He was quiet all the way over, and I think he might have senses something; he suddenly looked up when we were just outside Uminari, and that would be right around the time the rails were attacked."

Yoko nodded to herself. "That's true," she said. "Sometimes, it's hard to remember how much he's changed since six months ago. Whenever I look at him, all I see is Soma." A slight chill passed through Nanoha before she forced it down.

She still had nightmares every now and then about that last battle, the one she hadn't been physically present for. Still, she had sensed the terrifying power that the… the _thing_ that Soma had called Chaos wielded. Not even Death backed by the Jewel Seeds had been that powerful. Soma, however, had been able to beat it back by drawing on the very power that Chaos had used.

Nanoha was honest enough with herself to admit that the knowledge that the man she looked up to wielded the powers of darkness with such skill that he could likely be considered the Lord of Darkness frightened her a bit. However, she also had faith in him: she had faith that he would be able to overcome the temptation to misuse his power, as he had already done, and from everything she'd heard and seen over the last six months that faith was being vindicated.

Before she could continue her musings, however, the doorbell rang suddenly. "That must be him now," Yoko said, making her way towards the door. However, when she opened it, another familiar voice spoke.

"Hey, Yoko," Hammer, Soma's former American soldier friend, said. "I finally made it."

"Hammer!" Yoko cried, causing everyone to hurry to the front hall to see what was going on. "We thought you wouldn't be able to make it anymore! You weren't suppose to get here until tomorrow even before the attack on the rail, and after that…"

The former soldier chuckled. "Hey, when I heard my friends might be in trouble, I closed shop in a hurry and made my way over: I was only two or so trains behind Soma." His voice shifted, becoming slightly more wary. "I was actually on the last train that made it into Uminari: that's why it took so long for me to get here. The authorities are frantic, they were questioning everyone on that train to try and get some idea what's going on, and since I'm not technically part of Soma's crew I couldn't get away from them."

The witch smiled and stepped forward, giving the large man a quick hug. "It's good to see you, Hammer," she said. "Does Soma know you're here?"

"Yep," Hammer said, and Nanoha had to cover her mouth to cover a giggle at the look on his face. "I called him as soon as I made my escape, and he told me to head here right away and let you know that he'll be out a while longer." He held up the duffle bag he carried. "I've got plenty of supplies for a mission, if it comes to that: potions, amulets, spare weapons, that sort of thing."

"Maybe we should continue this conversation inside," Nanoha's father said, "It's impolite to leave a guest on the doorstep." Everyone agreed, and a minute later Hammer was gratefully accepting a cup of tea.

"You said that Soma would be out there a while longer," Yoko said, her voice wary. "Did he give any indication what he's looking for?"

The former soldier sighed. "Well, someone wants to keep everyone here for some reason," he said. "It was a bit hard to tell over the phone, but I'm guessing that Soma thinks that there's some sort of ambush prepared, and he's trying to find it." He smiled disarmingly. "He trusts you all to be able to handle yourselves until he got back, so I guess he feels safe making a wide sweep."

Nanoha nodded, a small flash of pride filling her that Soma trusted her and the others to look after themselves. "So what happens after this?" she asked.

"Well, if there is a fight here, then we'll probably move back to the safe house for a while until we can get a handle on the situation," Yoko said. "And if not, then it could be that whoever's behind this was just trying to keep Soma out of the way as they act elsewhere, in which case he'll leave and things will settle down. The rails could even be a complete coincidence, just someone crazy and not at all related to the wider problem." Even as she said the last idea, however, it was clear that she didn't truly believe it, and Nanoha found herself inclined to agree: it was just too much to be a coincidence.

She didn't say this out loud, however, as she rose to her feet. "I was thinking of giving Suzuka and Arisa a call, to let them know that everything's alright. They must be worried after we had to rush off this morning." Fate and Arf quickly volunteered to join in: they hadn't gotten much of a chance to talk to Nanoha's other friends over the past six months and they wanted a chance to connect. The adults agreed, and the three girls trooped up to Nanoha's room, where she tapped at her phone until she got both of her friends on the line.

"It's so good to hear from you, Nanoha, and you to Fate," Suzuka said. When she continued, her voice was tinged with worry. "Has there been any word on Yuuno?"

Nanoha shook her head, forgetting for a moment that her vampire friend couldn't see her. "No, there hasn't." she said. "I hope he's alright…"

After a moment of silence, Arisa cut in, clearly trying to lighten the mood. "So, if things are still calm tomorrow, we should all get together after school. My place is free, and we've got plenty of Arf's favorite food there."

The familiar flushed slightly at that comment; Arisa's family was as fond of dogs as Suzuka's was of cats, and thus the American had gotten the idea of sending Arf a "care package" of dog biscuits as a joke. However, everyone had been a bit surprised to learn that Arf actually really liked their flavor, having not realized the joke until after she was already hooked on them. In the end, the wolf-girl had decided that her taste-buds were more important than a small loss in pride, especially after Fate and her adopted family had told her that they didn't care what side of her duel nature she chose to embrace, they would love her anyways. Still, she had been a bit annoyed with Arisa for a few weeks.

The conversation continued along these lines for a few minutes as everyone worked to avoid any potentially upsetting topics.

Nanoha's friends had just been about to tell her about something that happened at the library after they parted ways when it all fell apart.

"**Careful, my Master!**"

** "Warning, Sir!**"

Everyone jerked as Raising Heart, sitting on the desk near Nanoha, and Bardiche, still set into the back of Fate's glove, both spoke up at the same moment, their mechanical voices tinged with worry. "What was that?" Arisa gasped as both mages and the familiar leapt to their feet. "What's goin…"

A wave of undulating light engulfed the room for a moment, and the American's voice was cut off. The lighting returned to normal a second later, but a quick glance at the phone confirmed to Nanoha that the danger had not yet passed: she had no signal.

"What was that?" someone that sounded like Kyoya called from downstairs. "Nanoha, are you alright?!"

"Yes, we're fine," Nanoha called back, grabbing her Device as she ran to the window and brushed aside the curtain just enough to peer out. Less than a meter from the window was a shimmering plain of light; not quite touching the house but clearly surrounding it. It was the light of a Dimensional Barrier. "But we've got company, and it seems Soma's right that they're from the Bureau." Turning, she nodded to Fate, who nodded back, Bardiche already held in her hand. With that, the two mages, followed by an adult-sized Arf, dashed down the stairs and were met by Yoko, Hammer, and the rest of the Takamachi family.

"I was afraid of this," Yoko muttered, spinning her wand through her fingers. "I was able to get a signal to Soma just before the barrier went up, but no words, just a sensation." She turned to Fate. "I know he was talking about a way to go through these sorts of barriers without having to smash them apart, did he ever figure that out?"

The blonde girl shook her head, her eyes worried. "I don't know," she said. "He said last week he had some ideas, and we were planning on testing them today before…"

Hammer, meanwhile, was kneeling against the wall next to a window, peeking out while hopefully remaining unseen. "I count three," he said, his normally jovial tone tense and sharp. "Blurs of light, like the girls. Two moving to surround, one seems to have stopped and is doing something."

Everyone hurried to their own windows to watch as a strange red shape, vaguely triangular, appeared in the darkened sky above the house. 'Looks like a magic circle,' Fate whispered mentally. 'But it's not Mid-Childan… I don't recognize it.'

Suddenly, Nanoha felt a surge of energy before the triangle vanished and the small, dark shape that had been standing on in rocketed forward in a blur of red, heading right for the house! "Back!" Shiro called, grabbing Nanoha and pulling her with him as he retreated deeper into the house, followed by everyone else. A second later, an almighty BANG shook the structure, and Nanoha sensed the wards shudder under the force of the blow.

"Raising Heart! Set up!" she cried, holding up the Intelligent Device.

"**Stand by! Ready!**" the red gem said in response before a wave of pink light flowed over the young mage, storing her cloths safely away as it formed a Barrier Jacket in their place. Meanwhile, Fate was doing the same, her black bodysuit, skirt and cape appearing amidst the crackle of magical lighting. A moment later, the two young mages were ready to fight, their Devices fully armed and prepared.

Meanwhile, Hammer had grabbed his bag and reached into it up to the shoulder before pulling out a massive yet beautiful claymore. With a blade longer than Nanoha was tall and almost as wide, it should have been impossible to carry, but Hammer managed, lightly waving the sparkling silver weapon twice before digging back into the bag again for something else.

"Claimh Solais," Yoko said. "I was wondering what ever happened to that."

"Yeah, Soma's not a fan of big swords like this," Hammer said, pulling out a bundle of katanas and placing them on the table, along with several amulets that Nanoha recognized as being moderately powerful shields for non-mages. "And since it's got its own built-in shielding abilities, it's perfect for me."

Yoko sighed. "That may be, but…" Another BANG echoed through the house as the wards shuddered again. "But you shouldn't be on the front line. We're dealing with enemies that are at least on my level, and you're just not able to handle that." She glanced around. "All of you, hold here. If something happens to one of us before Soma arrives, they'll fall back here and you can all work together to cover them. Alright?" No one she had named looked particularly happy about that, but another BANG made up their minds for them as they grabbed the offered enchanted katanas.

"Are we going to attack them?" Arf asked, slamming her fists together.

"Better than just hiding here and waiting for the wards to break," Yoko said. "We break out and split up. Arf and Fate will fight together, go for the weakest enemy. You'll try to overwhelm them then come help us, first Nanoha, and then me. We'll do what we can against the others." She pinned Nanoha to the wall with her gaze. "Your job isn't to beat the enemy, just to keep them busy. Soma will find a way through before too long, and then we'll continue from there. Understood?" Nanoha nodded, gripping Raising Heart as another BANG was heard; the wards wouldn't last much longer. "Alright, lets go!"

With that, the four fighters dashed out the front door and took to the air, passing through the wards easily. Nanoha saw the red enemy mage flying back away from the house, coming around for another pass. 'I'll take that one!' she said mentally as she angled after the other mage, pink Divine Shooter bullets forming around her.

'Understood. Be careful, Nanoha,' Fate said as she and Arf angled one way while Yoko went the other.

"**Shoot!**" Raising Heart said, launching the volley after the red blur. Another triangular shape popped up, and now that she got a closer look she realized that it was filled with symbols like her own circle, marking it as indeed being extra-dimensional in nature.

"Who are you?" she shouted, using her magic to be heard over the shriek of the Divine Shooters bouncing off the shield. "Why are you attacking us?"

The other figure, a young girl carrying some sort of hammer Device, didn't say anything as she waved a hand, forming three iron balls before striking them with her hammer, sending them rocketing towards Nanoha. The mage dodged two of them, but the third spun to meet her. "**Round Shield!**" Raising Heart called as it formed the defense just as the attack hit.

However, rather than break apart or glance off as Fate's Photon Lancers had, this attack smashed Nanoha back, her eyes widening in shock at the sheer power behind what should have been a relatively weak Shooting style attack. Her Round Shield held, of course, but it was far closer than it should have been.

As she finally deflected the attack, she watched as the redhead's hammer was briefly engulfed in light as a small, glinting object fell towards the ground far below. A moment later, the girl was rocketing forward, a golden spike glinting dangerously on the end.

A different, more impulsive Nanoha would have tried to match the other girl's power directly; brought up another Round Shield and attempted to block the oncoming charge. However, her time working with Yoko and occasionally Soma had taught her that, strong though she was, it was entirely possible that she wouldn't be the most powerful combatant in the fight. Thus she'd prepared herself for situations where she would need to win on her brain rather than her Linker Core.

So, instead of trying to create an unmovable object to match an irresistible force, she rocketed upwards, firing several more Divine Shooter bolts as she went. The other girl rapidly followed, a wordless cry assaulting Nanoha's ears as she somehow deflected the pink bullets while still coming on like a train. "I don't like this…" the girl muttered as she desperately spun out of the way, forcing the other girl to come around.

…

Fate, meanwhile, flew rapidly towards the silver blur of light, her sharp eyes picking out the large, heavy-set blue wolf that was blasting towards her. "A Familiar!" she said.

"And the same species as me," Arf said, shifting to her own wolf form as she flew. "Perfect, his master will have to feed him more energy as we beat him up, so we'll be weakening everyone else as we fight." Fate nodded, raising Bardiche.

"**Photon Lancer!**" the Device said, blasting a volley of lightning-shot attacks at the oncoming familiar. A silvery triangle appeared in front of him and the attack glanced off without effect as several of his own spells formed around him and launched towards Fate and Arf.

Fate's vision blurred as she used a Blitz Action to get around behind her foe as Arf dodged and retaliated. "Scythe Form," she cried, and as soon as the golden blade sprang into existence she launched herself at the wolf's back just as Arf reached him from the front.

Two more shields appeared, and a moment later the two girls bounced off as a wave of magical force exploded outwards. They were unhurt, but by the time the pair had recovered the wolf had darted out from between them and launched another attack, forcing them to duck behind their own shields.

Their defenses barely held, and the enemy didn't remain idle. "**STEEL YOKE!**" he roared, forcing Fate and Arf to roll desperately to evade the seeking binds.

"What's your big deal?!" Arf snarled, trying to catch him in a bind of her own as Fate threw an Arc Saber and Blitzed again, firing another volley of Photon Lancers when she reappeared. "Who are you!?"

The wolf's shields once again tanked Fate's attacks, and a moment later he broke out of Arf's bind with almost contemptuous ease. "You do not need to know that," he said, his voice grimly even in a way that reminded Fate worryingly of Julius Belmont. "You need only surrender your magic to us."

"Like hell!" Arf shot back, shifting to her human form and lunging forward with a punch. The other wolf followed suit, becoming a tall, powerfully built man as he caught Arf's fist with one hand before throwing her in Fate's direction.

'This is not going to be easy…' Fate thought warily as she Blitzed, noting out of the corner of her eye that Nanoha seemed to be in full retreat from the red attacker. 'Soma, I hope you're coming, because I don't like the way this is going.'

Suddenly a sharp cry of pain came from somewhere to Fate's left, and she turned just in time to see a shape falling away from a blur of purple light. "YOKO!" Fate cried.

…

Yoko approached her own opponent more slowly, watching the pink-haired woman whose sword glinted slightly. "What do you think you're doing?" she called, coming to a halt twenty or so meters away. Unlike Soma, Arikado, or Julius, her greatest strength lay in keeping her distance from her enemies and using her magic to defeat them.

The woman didn't say a word, simply raising her blade and blasting towards Yoko. "Ice Needles!" she shouted, waving her wand to form a dozen blades of ice, which blasted at the oncoming swords-woman. She wove her way through the first few, but was forced to block the others, driving her back a meter and allowing Yoko to cast a wave of Holy Lightning

"**Panzergeist!**" a voice said as a flash of purple light flared over the woman's form, causing Yoko's lightning to glance off as she continued her advance, sword first. Before Yoko could attack again, she was forced to duck behind a shield of her own as the woman swung the blade. The witch's eyes widened in shock as the blow hit hard enough to crack the shield and send her flying backwards, barely hanging on to her broom. The enemy didn't wait up, blasting forward for another strike and forcing Yoko to roll aside, a wave of fire emanating from her wand only to be cut by the blade before it could do any damage.

Yoko barely had time to get herself under control before the woman was coming at her again, and as Yoko deflected the sword again, the pinkette slammed the heavy metal sheath of her weapon into the witch's stomach, forcing her to tumble away. The other woman was relentless, continuing to pursue Yoko, never giving her a second to bring her full power to bear. Yoko may not be particularly good in close range, but it was clear that the woman _was_, and she was smart enough to exploit that advantage for all it was worth.

Another of Yoko's shields cracked under a particularly vicious sword blow, but a slight over-extension from the attacker allowed the witch to get her wand into position and emit several bolts of lightning, nothing major but enough that it should have been able to stun even a talented practitioner for a while and giving severe burns to any demonic enemy.

The swords-woman let out a hiss of pain as the lighting clawed over her face for a moment, but she didn't let up the pressure, using her sheath again to hit Yoko's shield and send her flying back, only to seemingly vanish into midair. Yoko had spent enough time with Fate to know what that meant and desperately strengthened her shield just in time for the woman to reappear in a blur behind her, an explosion occurring near the base of her sword.

"******Shiden Issen**!" the weapon said as flames burst along its length. The woman swung again, and this time the blade burst through Yoko's weakened shield. Desperately, the witch raised her wand, first carried by Sypha Belnades, to block the attack. The enchanted iron held, but the heat of the flames licked Yoko's hands and the force of the blow sent her flying even farther with a cry of pain. A moment later, her pink coat's defenses registered a blow as she smashed through the roof of one of the other houses near the Takamachi home. She didn't suffer any major damage, but it _hurt_!

'YOKO!' Fate and Nanoha cried mentally, but the witch was too stunned to respond as the pink-haired woman continued forward, her blade raised again.

Suddenly, just meters from the witch, a swirl of darkness appeared, and the attacker was smashed away by a massive skeletal fist, spiraling through a wall of her own and deeper into the house.

"I don't know who you are," Soma growled, anger lacing every syllable even as his eyes briefly flashed red. "But you have made the mistake of attacking my friends. You. Will. _Regret_. It."

* * *

Soma didn't know exactly what he was looking for as he walked through Uminari, but something told him that this place was important for more reasons than just because his friends were here. It wasn't a tangible sense; there didn't seem to be a large buildup of dark forces or other magic, but no matter how much he told himself that, he couldn't shake the feeling that this was where he was meant to be. He growled; it would be nice if these hunches gave a bit more specifics on what he was supposed to be looking for.

Pulling out his phone, he opened up the case files that Arikado and Ryota had given him, trying to see what had piqued his interest, splitting just enough attention to keep from bumping into someone or walking into traffic. After several minutes of reading over the cases, he finally noticed something interesting.

The attacks were wide-spread, taking place in cities all over Japan and even a few on the mainland, Even though those ones took place in other countries, it hadn't been hard for Arikado to convince the locals to give the SI access to the files: he was the one who had organized the coalition that had taken down Dracula in 1999, after all. But it wasn't anything in particular in those files that had caught Soma's eye; he was sure they had been picked over dozens of times by people trained to spot patterns. No, it was something else he had noticed: where _hadn't_ had an attack.

Almost every settlement over a million people had been targeted at least once, and the larger ones like Tokyo had been visited several times. However, there was one city that hadn't had a single confirmed incident, or even one that was probable but could have been something else: Uminari. Nanoha's home was not a small town, and yet nothing had happened? Soma supposed it could be that whoever was behind this had been scared off by the events of six months ago, but he doubted it. The Special Investigation building was located in Tokyo itself, and there were plenty of powerful practitioners there, including Soma himself. However, Tokyo had the single largest concentration of attacks.

If it wasn't the perpetrators avoiding a danger zone, then why were they not attacking in Uminari? The only answer Soma could think of is that they were trying to protect something there… a base, perhaps? If that was the case, then Soma might be able to clear this mess up before anyone else was hurt.

Of course, he would have to remember to be careful. He'd only seen a bit of what the Bureau was capable of during his time in Castlevania, and while he was confident he could defeat anyone on that ship, it was possible that the criminals were simply more powerful than a border patrol ship's crew; especially since they were using equipment that he hadn't seen on the _Arthra_, and after all the trouble his chaos-possessed self had given them he doubted they'd have pulled any punches. Possibly this group was connected with a true military unit rather than scouts? Yuuno hadn't mentioned anything like that when he'd discussed the Bureau, but maybe…

Soma took a deep breath and calmed his racing thoughts as he felt his friendly souls shift nervously: he couldn't panic right now for everyone's sake. Whether or not Uminari was the enemy's base, and whether or not they were more or less powerful than what he'd seen of the Bureau, his mission was the same. He had to remain focused; now that SI was onto them, it was only a matter of time before they got results. Then he'd show them why he held the power of the Lord of Darkness.

'That's the spirit, Master,' several of the souls cheered, causing a tight smile to cross Soma's face.

That smile faded, however, when a brief twinge crossed his mind, only to be suddenly cut off. "Yoko…" he muttered, immediately glancing around to find a quite spot away from prying eyes. Seeing a dark alley that looked deserted, he made his way over and as soon as he was out of view he vanished in a swirl of darkness, teleporting to a tower overlooking the residential district Nanoha's family lived in.

As soon as he arrived, he let out a hiss; there was a large, semi-pyramidal shape of dark, swirling light hovered over the area; a Dimensional Barrier. 'Can anyone hear me?' he called mentally, searching for anyone who might have been outside the barrier. There was no one. 'Well, looks like we get to test our ideas after all, Paranoia,' he thought as he vanished again, reappearing in an empty alley he had spotted from his raised position.

'Excellent, Master,' the red-clad demon said, giggling in a way that would have been disconcerting for most, but Soma took in stride as he pulled off his coat.

His old coat had been lost in Castlevania; his other self having thrown it away in favor of Dracula's traditional black armor and cape. When Soma had gone about getting his new one, he'd had several modifications made. First, he'd redoubled the defensive wards; using a couple of designs he'd found in Fate and Nanoha's Barrier Jacket spells. He estimated the new coat was at least half-again as tough as the old one, especially against purely magical damage. The largest change, however, was the fifth pocket. He had two on either side; the normal small ones enchanted to be larger on the inside: one for the remade Muramasa, one for his gun, and two for other odds and ends.

The fifth, however, was much different. Jokingly called the backpack, it curved around his back and was designed to carry much larger objects. The flaw was that he had to take the coat off to get anything out of it, but for certain things it was perfect.

Such as a mirror that was as tall as he was. Pulling it out, he carefully leaned it against a wall and pushed it until half of it was outside the barrier and half was inside; since the mirror itself wasn't magical, it slid through easily. Once it was in position, Soma summoned up Paranoia's power before stepping through the mirror like water.

The reincarnation of Dracula had never particularly liked doing this: the world inside of mirrors was… distorted, to say the least, and if the mirror was broken while he was in it, well the it was a pain to get back out. He knew how, of course, but it was still annoying. Despite all this, he'd gotten used to it, there were plenty of times when it was useful to be able to slip into a mirror. With any luck, this would be one of them. Carefully pressing himself against the other side of the mirror, Soma focused and pushed himself back out; focusing on appearing inside the barrier rather than in the normal world.

As he looked around, he smiled grimly; the swirls of magic were clear here: he was inside. "Take that," he muttered, drawing Muramasa and launching himself above the houses to get a look at what was going on.

Over the Takamachi house, a half-dozen blurs of light were flying around. Nanoha's pink was retreating from a red blur, and as he watched the girl was forced to do a crazy corkscrew to evade the opponent, who seemed to have some difficulty turning on a dime. Fate and Arf were flying together against a silvery-white enemy, but they were so clustered that it was hard for Soma to pick out what was going on as their trails overlapped and collided time and again.

What caught his attention, however, was the purple streak that was rapidly smashing into a darker form that could only be Yoko. Soma knew that Yoko wasn't particularly talented in close range, and if she was stuck fighting someone who was… Just as he thought this, the purple mage flared briefly, and his ears distantly caught Yoko's cry of pain as she was blasted down and through the roof of one of the houses.

Anger filled Soma as the darkness gathered around him again, bringing him swiftly to his friend's side just in time to call up Creaking Skull to smash the enemy; a pink-haired woman carrying a flaming sword, through a wall away from the stunned Yoko. "I don't know who you are," he snarled. "But you have made the mistake of attacking my friends. You. Will. _Regret_. It."

"Soma, glad you could make it," Yoko said, rolling to her feet. "I'm sorry,"

"That's alright," Soma said, jerking his head. "You should go help the others, I think Nanoha's having trouble. I'll deal with this one."

The witch nodded as she resummoned her broom. "Be careful, Soma, she's good."

Soma nodded and the woman came back, her sword raised in a high guard that would allow for rapid attacks if he let his defenses slip for even a second. She was clearly a master.

Fortunately, Soma was a blade-master in his own right. "Alastor," he growled, and a moment later the ghost knight appeared behind him, his heavy blade hovering just over Soma's shoulder. "It's you, isn't it?" he asked, pointing Muramasa's flaming blade at her. "You're the ones who've been attack people all over Japan."

The woman simply narrowed her eyes before coming at him in a blur, moving faster than the average human eye could track as her blade swung down and launched a series of blows at him. Soma easily caught each of them before Alastor drove her back, allowing Soma to go on the offensive, his own blade lashing out. The woman deflected his attack with her sheath before blasting backwards, a brief explosion ejecting another of those magical casings from the base of her sword as she took to the air.

Growling, Soma pursued, Muramasa's cursed fire flaring to match the flames wreathing her sword. A moment later, the battle was joined in earnest.

…

Meanwhile, across the sky, Nanoha was running out of tricks. The red haired girl was _still_ after her, but now she was being smarter about it. The engine on her hammer had gone off, but Nanoha knew that if she held still for a moment too long, she'd be forced to defend herself against an attack she wasn't sure she'd be able to. Plus, she still hadn't heard anything from Yoko, but she couldn't afford to turn and look, but…

"Got you!"

Nanoha squeaked as she realized that her thoughts had slowed her down that crucial little bit, and she desperately juked to the side just in time for the hammer's engine to roar as it passed through the space where she should have been. Taking advantage of the increase in the girl's momentum, Nanoha reversed her flight path, gritting her teeth at the strain but unwilling to stay anywhere near that hammer if she could help it. As the girl turned to face Nanoha again, the brunette fired a very weak Divine Buster, barely worth the name, just to buy a bit of space. Divine Shooters just glanced off the girl's automatic guard, and Nanoha didn't have nearly the time or space to use a full Divine Buster, so she was forced to improvise.

And when Nanoha improvised, she started talking.

"Can't we talk about this?" she asked as she dodged another charge before letting her Round Shield take the heavy kick her opponent threw as she passed. "I'm sure if we just settled down and had a discussion…"

"That sounds like a great idea," the redhead snarled, blocking another Divine Shooter as she threw one of her Schwalbefligen balls at Nanoha: in her Device's current form it seemed she couldn't hit them, so the attack was much weaker. "Just _stay still_!"

Nanoha's Flyer Fins flapped as she glided to the side. "There's no need for this!" she cried. "Can you at least tell me your name?" 'Get her to give me something I can use to stop this madness, some connection, something…' Nanoha thought.

"Shut up and fight!"

"I'm Nanoha Takamachi! Please, tell me your name!"

"I said SHUT UP!"

Suddenly a wave of ice formed in the air, and as the redhead smashed through it froze around her again, formed around her into an icy cage. "Now that's not a very nice thing to say," Yoko said as she came up beside Nanoha just as the ice shattered. Before the shards could hurt anyone, the witch waved her wand and turned them back to water.

"Yoko! You're alright!" Nanoha cried.

"Yeah, Soma's here, and he's taking on the pinkette, so I'm here to help you."

The redhead snorted. "Oh, please, as if anyone could take Signum."

Just then, an explosion shook the area, and everyone paused to glance over just in time to see the pink-haired woman right herself from a tumble just in time to block Soma's charge; their blades clashing dozens of times in as many seconds as they free-fell towards another house, crashing through the roof and kicking up a cloud of smoke.

"You sure about that?" Yoko said sweetly, spinning her wand between her fingers and summoning several more blades of ice. 'We'll split up, she'll only be able to go after one of us in close range so the other can hit her with everything they've got.'

Nanoha nodded as the two flew in opposite directions. 'Be careful, she seem really focused on breaking through defenses; I don't think we want to test her.'

'I'll keep that in mind,' Yoko said as the redhead came to a decision and blasted at Yoko. She must have decided that; if she hadn't hit Nanoha without someone else shooting at her, she wasn't going to manage now. Instead, she went for the slower target.

However, now that she could stay still, Nanoha was ready to do what she did best. "Raising Heart! Shooting Mode! Full power!"

"**Yes, my Master!**" the device said, its form glowing pink before shifting into the long U shape that allowed Nanoha to properly channel the destructive power of her Bombardment spells. "**Divine****...**"

Nanoha pointed her beloved weapon at the red haired girl as Yoko continued to keep her busy. "Alright, so you won't listen?" she whispered. "I'll just have to cool you down a bit. Divine Buster!"

"**Buster!**"

Yoko must have seen what Nanoha was doing, as she dodged, leaving a cage of ice behind. The girl broke out almost immediately, but when dealing with a Bombardment class spell, almost isn't good enough. The redhead let out a sharp cry as the blazing pink wave of light slammed into her, blasting her away.

'Fate? Soma, how are you doing?' Nanoha asked as she shifted her aim, preparing another Divine Buster just in case the redhead wasn't calm enough to talk yet.

'We're surviving,' Arf said as Nanoha saw an explosion out of the corner of her eye in Fate's direction. 'He can't get us; we can't get him. A little help would be appreciated.'

'Take your time coming to me,' Soma said, a grim fury in his mental voice. 'I can do this all night.'

'That's good,' Nanoha said as she watched the redhead rise back to their level, her eyes blazing with fury as an explosion ejected another of those small objects from just below the head of the hammer. 'Because I think I just made her mad.' She glanced down at Raising Heart with a smile. 'I guess more power is need, isn't it?'

"**Of course, my Master.**"

* * *

"I must say, I did not see this coming," Sylphina said as she leaned on the railing of the human skyscraper she had climbed as soon as she realized that someone, likely one of the Belkan knights, had put up a massive Dimensional Barrier. "I wonder what they're up to." Spriggan was silent, he had already made his opinion of this whole business known and yet his mistress still wished to put her life in danger for nothing. Glancing over her shoulder, Sylphina sighed. "Spriggan, I'm sorry I'm not listening to you, but this is just something I have to do, alright?" she said.

"If that is your wish," Spriggan said stiffly. The fairy lady could only sigh again and look back at the barrier.

"It's a dangerous game you're all playing," she murmured distantly. "I hope you know what you're doing."

Spriggan suddenly tensed and spun around while Sylphina's ears perked as soft footsteps were heard from behind them. "I'm afraid they are not prepared, my Lady," the soft voice of Zobek said from behind them.

Sylphina's smile tightened as her eyes hardened. "I was wondering when you were going to show your face," she said, her voice once again cool and even as she turned and leaned her back against the railing, watching the white-clad man make his way over, that same book of his tucked under one arm. He came to a halt several meters away, placing his own hands on the railing and gazing at the barrier himself. After several tense seconds, the fairy continued. "What did you mean, 'they're not prepared'?"

"Exactly what I said," Zobek said. "They have no idea what they're dealing with in there." He glanced at Sylphina out of the corner of his eye as he continued. "Aren't you the slightest bit interested?"

"Of course I am, but you're either going to tell me or you won't, and I doubt anything I say will change your mind," Sylphina said, her eyes narrowing. "So are you?"

Zobek's smile tightened. "I suppose I can give you a portion of the story," he said. "You know the tale of Dracula, yes?"

Both Sylphina and Spriggan jerked at that black name. "As much as anyone," the lady said, anger lacing her voice. "It was his minions that killed my friend's companions and left her for dead. But you already knew that, didn't you."

The man nodded. "Of course, of course, but I was referring to more recent events."

"You mean his death? Yes, I know enough about what happened to know that he will not return, not this time."

"A simplistic answer. You should well know that power of that magnitude does not simply vanish. I believe these past years you have been… dealing with some of the pieces of power that made it into your home realm."

The woman's fist clenched; even when they were corrupted by black magic and it was for their own good, she felt an almost physical pain when she was reminded that she had killed other fairies. "Do you have a point?" she snapped.

Zobek turned to face her fully, his expression grim. "All you ever faced were table scraps, barely worth considering," he said. "The true prize, the power that carries the mantle of the Lord of Darkness, was not content to inhabit any random form that happened to be nearby. No, it chose its place carefully, where it would have the greatest chance to return to its proper place." He nodded to the sky. "There was another total eclipse here three years ago. Did you know that?"

Sylphina and Spriggan glanced at each other. "Are you… suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" the fairy asked, a hint of fear in her voice.

"That the dark power that made Dracula feared has found a new host?" Zobek said. "Yes. That the host is currently inside that barrier? Yes." A tight smile crossed his face. "I do have some good news, that the power has not fully manifested yet, so it can still be…"

"Enough about that!" Sylphina snapped, her wings flaring to life. "We have to get in there and help them! Spriggan!" With that, she leapt off the roof, automatically weaving a glamour around herself as she fell towards the street below, her bodyguard right behind her.

Zobek didn't move, his smile widening slightly. "Truly, young Lady, you are quite predictable," he breathed, leaning his elbows on the railing and resting his chin on his steepled fingers.

The two fairies landed hard and sprinted over to the barrier, unnoticed by the humans milling around them. "Alright, how did this work?" Sylphina muttered as she pulled Stribog from around her neck and ordered it to deploy, though she didn't bother with the Knight's Armor. After a moment, she let out an unladylike curse. "Alright, this is one of those barriers, without the proper codes I can't get through myself." She turned to Spriggan. "You'll have to go in there and help them. You're no match for the Lord of Darkness on your own, but you need to take some pressure off them. I know it's dangerous, but... please, for me?"

The changeling didn't bother disagreeing; he could sense his mistress' fear. "I am prepared," he hissed as he shifted into his war-form. Sylphina smiled grimly before pressing her gauntleted hands against the barrier and beginning to chant. She may not be able to easily get herself through, but she knew enough about Belkan magic that, when combining that knowledge with her own ability to slip between dimensions due to Fay training, she was able to form temporary cuts in the barrier allowing others in. As soon as the barrier was ready, Spriggan nodded and darted in. After a long moment, Sylphina let the barrier close behind him before taking off and flying back up to where Zobek was waiting.

"You certainly have faith in someone you never listen to," the man said quietly as she landed, letting her wings fade away. She simply glared at him before turning her gaze back to the barrier.

'Please… be safe…' she though, gripping the metal hard enough to leave imprints of her fingers in the metal.

* * *

Like all her fellow Wolkenritter, Vita's memories of what had happened during previous cycles was fuzzy, to say the least. Shamal had once theorizing that their memory-loss sprung fact that they had a habit of dying painfully in the service of their masters, and their minds had to give certain things up. Vita would never admit it, but she was actually rather happy with that. She hated those things she did remember; the things that her previous masters had done, what they had made her and her companions do. No, it was far better to remember Hayate, whose kindness and compassion had given the Wolkenritter what they had always wanted.

One thing that never went away, however, was the battles. Vita could remember every single fight she had ever had with crystal clarity, something that was normally helpful. It did give her a bit of pride that it generally took about ten to fifteen of the Bureau's mages to overwhelm her, and she almost always took a couple of them with her. Right now, however, all she could think of was that this was going to be the second time she was going to lose today. First had been to that pretty-girl fairy, and now it was to the annoying talkative girl and the blonde.

Rolling out of the way of another Bombardment class attack, she reached out with her mind. 'How're you two doing?' she asked, silently hoping that one of them was almost done so they could get one of these people _off her back_!

'My battle is a stalemate for the moment,' Zafira growled, and at the same moment Vita watched a cluster of yellow bolts slam into his shield. 'I will be able to outlast these two, but it will take time. Time I'm not sure you have.' Vita bit back a curse, it was true and she knew it.

Signum didn't answer immediately, and when she did it sounded like it was through gritted teeth. 'This opponent is… quite talented. Defeating him will be… troublesome.'

The Knight of the Hammer's eyes widened; Signum was the leader of the Wolkenritter for a reason: Shamal was technically older, but Signum was insanely talented. She could hold her own against all three of the others at the same time, and she could handle more than twenty above-average Bureau mages and kill or badly wound most of them by herself when she went all out. If there was someone who could even approach her skill level… maybe that fairy had had a point when she'd said they'd need her help…

Even as she was thinking this, she was continuing her assault, or at least trying to. The blonde woman on the broom was slower that Talky, but she was fast enough that Vita was having a hard time getting a good hit in, especially since she was having to dodge blasts of pink light every few seconds. She'd tried to get Talky to hit her partner, but the two were clearly communicating too well for that to happen.

Of course, Vita wasn't going all out: a few swings of Gigantform would solve all her problems. However, she didn't know how durable either of these people were and the Wolkenritter had promised that, even though they were disobeying Hayate's orders, they would not sully her good name by killing anyone to save her unless absolutely necessary. So Vita was forced to soldier on, hoping that someone among the opponents made a mistake, though she doubted it would come to that.

A hiss of pain left her as the edge of one of those damn Divine Busters caught her, forcing her to spiral to the side and miss an attack on the blonde. "Please, stop this!" Talky called. "Just settle down so that we can work this all out." Vita cursed again, half her problems stemmed from the fact that the annoying little brat just wouldn't _shut up_. Of course, that was probably the point.

Even as she continued to fly, abandoning her Rakentenform and focusing on Schwalbefligen in an attempt to at least _hurt_ one of them, Vita could tell that, unless something radically changed, she wasn't going to win this one. Either of them alone, she was sure she'd be able to beat, but both together? Not going to happen.

Finally, it happened. Blondie jerked out of the way of another of Vita's swings, but this time she left a surprise behind: a flash of blinding light right into Vita's face. It put only a slight drain on her defenses, but the main damage was the fact that; for the second and a half it took her vision to clear, she couldn't see a thing. Desperately, she spun, trying to get a good hit in, and was surprised when she did.

Of course, it was only after the blow landed that she realized it was another of those icy clusters Blondie was so fond of, and as it broke it flowed and reformed around Graf Eisen, holding the hammer and the Knight in place for a second.

"**Chain Bind!**" Talky's Device said, and before Vita could escape she felt the hard magical shackles forming around her ankles and wrists, holding her in place. 'Not again… I hate binds…' Vita thought mutinously as she blinked to get the lingering after-effects of the blinding light out of her vision. When she could see again, she glared at the two that had moved to hover in front of her.

"Are you ready to talk to us yet?" Talky asked, her Device lowered. A stupid move; there was always the possibility that Vita could break out of the binds, so the girl should be ready to blast her into submission if she did. The other woman, at least, was keeping her puny little Device substitute pointed at the Knight, which meant that one of the people she had lost to knew what she was doing. It lessened the shame, if only a tiny bit.

'A little help?' Vita asked hopefully.

'Sorry, no,' Zafira said. 'My two are making a concerted effort to keep me from reaching you.' Signum didn't answer with words, but from the sense of frustration she must have been in the same boat.

"Alright, Nanoha," Blondie say. "I'm going to go help Fate and Arf, then we'll all go finish up Soma's opponent. You stay here and…"

Suddenly, her eyes widened and she jerked to the side, slamming into Talky and shoving her out of the way just as a dark, whip-like shape slashed through the air. Before either of them could recover, another whip lashed out and broke Vita's bindings.

'My Lady bids me aid you, Knight,' the dark, hulking form of Spriggan said as he arrived next to Vita, his wings buzzing slightly as the whips shifted back into jagged blades along his arm.

'What are you doing here?! How did you get in?!' the redhead snarled, shifting her hammer.

'That is not important. You have enemies? I will fight them.'

This conversation took place in only about a second, so both were completely focused when Talky stared shouting. "What's going on? Who are you?"

Spriggan bared his jagged teeth. "One who will destroy you, human," he growled, his wings flaring.

Slowly, Vita smiled at the stunned look on the other two's faces. 'I may not be particularly fond of you or your lady,' she said, taking a moment to feed a few extra cartridges into Graf Eisen before pointing it at Talky. 'But I will admit, you've got good timing. The kid's mine, you take the other one.'

The dark fairy didn't speak, simply flapping his wings once and shooting towards Blondie with both blades swinging. With a cry, the woman fell back under the assault, leaving the brunette alone with Vita.

"**Explosion!**" Graf Eisen said as it ejected another cartridge, reforming the rocket engine and spike.

"Let's finish this, girl," Vita snarled as she blasted forward towards her foe once more.

…

'Be advised, the enemy has reinforcements!' Yoko sent over the team's mental network, causing Fate to twitch in shock. How had _that_ happened?

'Is everyone alright?' she asked, flinching as her moment of inattention allowed the wolf-man to get a good hit in, forcing her to raise Bardiche to block.

Nanoha's voice was tense. 'I'm alright for the moment, but I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up,' As Arf kicked the other Familiar back, Fate took the opportunity to take a desperately quick look in her friend's direction.

The pink trail was flying low, clearly trying to shake the red one off among the houses, but the other mage was just too good. For every time the brunette dodged, the redhead would come around again even faster, and Nanoha was losing space. Fate could tell that it was only a matter of time before she took a hit, and if the hammer-girl was anything like the familiar, it might not be a hit Nanoha could take.

"**Sir!**" Bardiche said, his voice scratchy and the blinking of his core weak. He'd taken a horrible battering during the fight: for every blow that landed on him, a new crack was added to his form. Already, Fate could tell that he'd need quite some time to repair himself after this was all over. If they survived that long.

All of this, of course, was going on as Fate was dodging to the side, avoiding a pair of magical attacks as Arf grunted in pain, tumbling back with a hand on her stomach where the other wolf had kicked her with his heavy metal boots. "Damn you!" she snarled, forming several more bullets of magic. "What will it take to put you down?!"

The man simply clenched his fists. "I am Zafira, the Guardian Beast," he said. "So long as my Mistress needs me, you shall never break my defenses. Come, children, face defeat with dignity."

"Your Mistress may need you," Fate said quietly, activating Bardiche's Scythe Form again. "But _my friends_ need me. You will not beat us."

"**Yes, Sir!**" her Device said, lightning crackling across its dark shape. Arf simply growled, her fists clenched.

Their opponent, Zafira, narrowed his eyes. "Very well," he said, launching forward again. Fate and Arf spun out of the way, not willing to match this wolf's strength head on. 'How are they so powerful?' Fate thought as she cast a few Photon Lancers again to get some space before throwing an Arc Saber, only for her every attack once more glance of the silver triangle shield. 'I've never seen anything like this.'

As the battle continued, it settled back to the way it had been before Soma arrived. For a few precious minutes, the enemy wolf had been forced to fight more aggressively, trying to get to his companion who was being battered by Nanoha and Yoko. Now that she was free to focus only on the brunette, however, he had settled back into a more defensive battle; keeping _them_ too busy to go help anyone.

Fate had a terrible feeling that he was going to last longer than either of them. 'Do we know if there are any more of them coming?' she asked.

…

'If there is, we haven't seen them,' Yoko hissed, spinning away from another of the creature's whip-slashes. 'But I don't get it, why would a demon be helping people from Bureau space? That doesn't make any sense!'

Thankfully, this enemy didn't have the redhead's unblockable strength or the pinkette's speed and skill, but it made up for that with an unbelievably unstructured attack pattern. It switched from blades to whips and back again, it circled and came from different angles, and its form was shifting in a way that made it almost dizzying to look at. Worse, the one time she'd gotten a good hit in with her Holy Lightning, it hadn't seemed to have much effect: that spell should have burned through all but the most powerful demons like acid through paper. "What're you doing here?" she hissed as she dropped to one of the roofs, glad to finally get her feet back on something solid as she watched the creature circle. "What even are you, demon?"

Surprisingly, the creature gave an answer. "I am no demon!" it roared, its voice loud enough to drive Yoko back a step. "Do not compare me to those vile things! I am a _Shadow_. I serve my Lady, and she bid me fight alongside your enemies. Thus, I will _destroy_ _you_." The twin whips combined into a massive hammer-fist that swung at Yoko, forcing her to cartwheel backwards as she launched a wave of ice blades.

'Yoko, be careful!' Nanoha cried just as the witch sensed the young mage approaching from behind.

"**Divine Shooter!**" Raising Heart cried, and as Yoko rolled to the side a volley of fast-moving pink bolts flashed past her and slammed into the Shadow, which withdrew into its shell just in time.

However, as Nanoha tried to fly by, the whip came out again and scored a blow on the pink blur, causing her to cry out in pain and spin away. "I've got you now!" the redheaded girl shouted, the engine on her hammer roaring as she blasted forward. Yoko tried to interpose herself between the attack and the struggling mage, but the Shadow was faster, flashing across the distance and forcing her back with a series of lightning slashes from its blades.

"NANOHA!" Yoko could only watch in horror as a pink Round Shield sprang desperately up… only to be shattered like glass as the hammer girl slammed into her. The brunette shrieked in pain as she was knocked away, bouncing off several roofs before skidding down the road in a cloud of dust and shattered asphalt.

After a moment of staring, the redhead pursued.

…

Nanoha moaned as she tried to get to her feet, but she was in too much pain to even think about moving. "Raising… Heart…" she whimpered.

"**My… Master…**" the Device said, her voice jerky and static filled. Terror welled up in Nanoha as she forced herself to look at her mechanical friend. When the Round Shield had broken, it hadn't been Nanoha's Barrier Jacket that took the blow… oh nononononono…

The golden portion of the Device, just below the head, was shattered, and cracks spider-webbed their way across the entire shaft. The gem was dull, and to Nanoha's horror she realized that the cracks had even reached it! From what she understood, the rest could be repaired fairly easily, but if too much damage was done to the core… "Raising Heart! Speak to me!" Nanoha cried, her fear banishing the pain enough for her to curl around her staff, not even caring if anyone was coming towards her.

"**Major… damage… my… Master… Emergency… shutdownnn****n****n****n****…**" Nanoha's eyes widened in horror as a final beep was heard, and Raising Heart said no more. That… she couldn't be…

The sound of boots on pavement caused Nanoha's ears to twitch, and she turned in time to see the redhead walking over, an inscrutable look in her eyes, and for a moment Nanoha thought she was going to simply leave. Slowly, however, she raised her hammer for a final blow. The brunette couldn't help it, she squeezed her eyes shut and wrapped herself even more tightly around her silent Device,

"GET AWAY FROM MY SISTER!" two voices screamed, and a second later the clash of metal on metal filled the air, and Nanoha weakly opened her eyes to see what was happening.

Kyoya and Miyuki were standing over Nanoha, both gripping katanas that were locked with the redhead's hammer. A moment later, the girl was driven back as Shiro Takamachi arrived, his own blade weaving a web of enchanted steel. As she looked around, Nanoha realized that, by some twist of good luck, she had actually landed just a few meters from the front of her house.

"Alright, come on sweetie, lets get you out of here," Nanoha heard her mother whisper as a pair of warm, gentle hands worked themselves under her and lifted her from the ground while Hammer, still carrying his massive sword, joined the others in attacking the redhead.

"Mama… Raising Heart…"

"Shhh, darling, shhh, it's alright," Momoko said.

A moment later, however, the young mage watched as her opponent lifted into the air out of her family's reach before raising a hand and summoning a cluster of her Shooter attacks… attacks that had come uncomfortably close to breaking a full Round Shield. With only some amulets to protect them…

'Please, someone, anyone, help!' Nanoha cried mentally.

…

It had been a long time since Signum had last truly felt alive.

She knew she wasn't like the others. Shamal had never really liked fighting; even though she was far more capable than most mages, she would always be a healer at heart. Zafira was a wall in more ways than in battle: he fought for what he believed in, but he didn't let his passions control him. Vita was the closest: she was brash and aggressive, and most importantly she wanted to _win_. However, the ultimate reason was always because she wanted to protect the people she cared about. For too long, that had only been her fellow Wolkenritter, but now she had Mistress Hayate as well, which explained her rise in aggression.

Signum? Signum fought for the sake of the battle. True, she did care about other things; she loved Mistress Hayate as much as any of the others, and she was concerned about the well-being of her fellows, but when she was in battle, the song of war was always threatening to overwhelm her. Most of the time she could stave it off: especially since she had not faced a true _challenge_ in decades.

But she faced that challenge now, and it was all she could do not to give into the desire to throw caution and restraint to the winds and go for the kill.

The man she was fighting was every bit as fast as she was, and his skill with a blade was only _slightly_ less than her own. He more than made up with it, however, by the strange magic he was able to use, seemingly without the slightest bit of effort. Every time she tried to attack, he would meet it either with his black sword or a silver shield, and the ghostly swordsman that hovered behind him would move in to counterattack, forcing her to use her sheath to fend it off while retreating.

"Laevatein!" she cried, causing her blade to eject a cartridge.

"**Schlangenform!**" the sword called, and as she retreated further the blade stretched; becoming a long whip-sword that she attempted to wrap around her foe, only for him to vanish in a pool of darkness and appear behind her.

"What do you hope to gain from all this?" he snarled, lightning crackling around his blade for a moment before he swung, releasing the magical attack. Signum's defenses easily held as she spun to face him, Laevatein moving to surround the pair.

The cool, rational part of the leader of the Wolkenritter told her to simply remain silent and focus on the battle, but that just seemed… impolite, to do to such an opponent. "We fight to save the one we care for," she said. "We would do anything for them."

"Even attack innocents? Attacking _children_?" he shot back, his sword flicking out and letting Laevatein wrap around it before attempting to rip her Armed Device from her hand and almost succeeding. Smiling at the strength he showed, Signum allowed her weapon to return to its Schwertform before briefly putting it back in its sheath, ejecting another cartridge.

"**********Shiden Issen**!" the pair said together, and as Signum drew her blade, the flames were enhanced as the sheath's powerful mana-compressor focused the magic into an even more destructive force.

Her opponent's blade flared in response, and as the two clashed Signum could feel the heat washing over her. Her smile widened as she pushed him away before pursuing, spinning her blade in a dizzying series of attacks that would have overwhelmed a lesser man, but he met her blow for blow, finishing with a roundhouse kick that sent her spinning away, following up by throwing an ugly plant at her that let out an ear-piercing shriek.

Before it could get too close, Signum swung Laevatein and called "Sky Fang!" Thus, she was only hit by the outer edges of the magic-based sonic attack before the flash of fire burned the strange plant thing to a crisp. Still, that gave her opponent time to vanish again, this time appearing above her and raising a single hand with a ball of silvery light in it.

"Gergoth! BURN!" he shouted, unleashing a devastating beam.

"**Panzergeist!**" Laevatein said, forming the field around Signum mere seconds before the attack hit, and even then she felt the power behind it and watched her defense crack dangerously before the attack faded, giving Signum barely enough time to raise her blade to ward off another series of blows.

About halfway through this clash, Signum distantly heard her original opponent, the blonde who focused on distance attacks, cry out, and a moment later Vita spoke up grimly. 'Little Pink down, but not yet out. Moving to finish.'

Signum's opponent must have heard what was going on as well, because his eyes widened for a moment before narrowing in fury. "You'll regret that," he snarled, coming in again even faster.

However, it seemed his anger he had gotten a bit sloppy, as Signum was finally able to find an opening in his guard. A quick blow later, she overwhelmed his automatic defense and sent him flying through a roof fifty meters below. Not willing to leave anything to chance, Signum launched herself after him, rapidly slipping two more cartridges into Laevatein.

As she flew through the dust, she saw the white-clad man picking himself up from the wall he'd smashed into hard enough to break but not quite go through. Still, he didn't look injured, and so Signum approached with some caution.

It appeared, however, that the blow had shaken him a bit more than she had first thought, as his defense was not nearly as fast as before. Thus, as Signum continued her relentless assault, he gave ground, eventually being driven back against another wall. Finally, with a quick twist, she got the sword out of his hand and swung it around for another blow…

Only to have the sword she'd knocked away vanish into midair a moment after a new one appeared in his hand, blocking her attack. The brief moment of shock was enough for him to slip to the side before spinning, knocking her into the wall herself. She barely slipped away before being skewered, but in that second…

"Laevatein!" she hissed.

"**Explosion!**" the sword cried as it ejected another cartridge. She swung the flaming blade at the man, and as she feared, it slipped broke through the sword in a way it hadn't been able to before, forcing the opponent to dodge.

A moment later, as the sword regrew, the figure smirked. "Clever," it said, its voice completely different from the one it looked like. "My Master was needed elsewhere, so he ordered me to hold you here." Before Signum's eyes, the form's shape twisted and warped, and a moment later she might as well have been staring into a mirror; if a mirror was able to give her expressions that did not belong on her face. "I am merely a Doppelganger, a pathetic shadow of my Master's power."

Signum didn't bother staying behind to listen; she knew where her true enemy was going. 'Vita! Look out!' she cried mentally, blasting through the nearest wall and rocketing towards her younger companion, even though she knew it would be far too late.

Indeed, just after she said that, she heard Vita's mental cry of pain and fury. Blazing over the roof at speeds approaching that of sound, Signum watched as the smallest Wolkenritter spun around, blood coming from a the long slash across her back. She was still fighting, however; Graf Eisen's engine roared as she took a swing at her attacker.

The man's dodging skills were just too good, and the golden spike found only empty air as he wove back, only to come in with another slash as the hammer passed, not even noticing as the exhaust from the rocket scorched his coat. Vita fell back with another cry of pain, but she wasn't out of the fight yet, and Signum would be there in seconds.

Then, something unexpected happened. Three balls of light, two yellows and blue, exited the man before rising to form a triangle in front of him.

"Ectoplasm, Alura Une, Skeleton Farmer," he hissed. "Deal with this one." As he said that, he spun his blade over his shoulder to block Laevatein just before it ripped open his back as he had ripped open Vita's.

The three balls of light, meanwhile, slammed into each other, and a moment later a massive flower appeared, spreading thick, thorny vines towards Vita, who was still reeling from the blows she'd been dealt. Before she could recover, the vines had grabbed her, their spines digging deeply into her skin and causing her to hiss in pain.

'Damn, I think they're poisoned!' she said mentally, thrashing in the plant's grip as the flower opened, revealing the body of a woman. 'Can't… focus…'

A flash of anger filled Signum as she attacked with renewed vigor, trying to get past the man to help her companion. 'Zafira, Fairy, assistance needed,' she said.

'On my way,' the Guardian Beast said.

'I heed thy call.'

The white haired man, meanwhile, had gone on the offensive, the black flames of his blade filling the air as he drove Signum back step by step. Thankfully, it seemed he couldn't control more than one magical construct, as the ghost sword wielder was nowhere to be seen. Still, his skill was more than enough to keep his momentum going. It didn't hurt that Signum knew she only had two cartridges ready and only a few more prepared. 'Once we get back, I'll have to ask Shamal to make more.'

Sifting Laevatein back to Schlangenform, she fell back to get some distance, weaving a tangled web of magically enhanced metal around the white-clad knight (For he was far too talented to be considered a simple mage.) He tried to catch the snake-like blade with his own, but this time Signum kept it away until she finally finished, bringing whole web crashing inwards in an instant.

As expected, he teleported out of it, but Signum had been waiting for that. "Laevatein!" she cried, another cartridge popping out of her blade as it started to glow purple.

"**Hiryu Issen****!**"

As her opponent reappeared in a pool of darkness, Signum spun Laevatein around, emitting a massive wave of purple light, and he only had time to raise his silver shield before the attack hit. The leader of the Wolkenritter didn't bother to see if it penetrated or not, she shot towards Vita, who hung limply in the plant's thorny embrace. The vines tried to seize her as well, but Laevatein's Schwertform was more than enough to slice through them, causing the woman at the center of the plant to cry out in pain. A moment later, she had reached the core and rammed Laevatein through the woman's belly and twisting it; causing the whole mass to disperse and return to the lights it had started at. They quickly flew back to their master as Signum caught her little subordinate.

"Thanks… Signum…" Vita groaned, allowing herself to drift. "I… can barely… move…"

"Her wounds are cursed," the other knight said, his voice harsh as he waved a hand, summoning another cluster of lights, one each of red, blue and yellow. "She won't die, but she's not fighting for a long while. Slogra. Gaibon. Golem."

The three lights combined, forming a massive, hulking shape. A thick, heavy body supported four arms: two with wings attached and two carrying long, razor-sharp spears. The legs were also dangerous: each had a cluster of large, curved talons, and the whole thing was covered in a greenish armor.

"So it is true." Both combatants looked up to see the fairy that had arrived to save Vita hovering nearby. A moment later, the blonde who had originally been fighting Signum arrived at her companion's side, lightning crackling around her.

A moment later, Zafira spoke again, a grim note of satisfaction in his voice. "The young blonde mage down, and her beast is retreating to protect her." As he said this, Signum heard a brief cry of pain followed by the crash of a body going through a roof.

"Fate!" the blonde woman called.

'Alright,' Signum thought as Zafira flew over to meet them. 'We outnumber them, and the woman doesn't seem too strong. Zafira and I will take the white-haired one, and you'll keep…' A BANG temporarily broke her concentration, along with a flash of pain.

It was at this point that Signum realized something was off. Looking down, she cocked her head at the fact that there was a smoking hole in her abdomen with blood leaking out. 'How'd that get there?' she thought. Her answer came a moment later when the fairy's whips pulled her out of the way at the same moment a flash of light was seen from just in front of the house the mages had all been hiding in. Looking at it, Signum realized that the man she had briefly seen carrying a massive shining sword was now carrying a large rifle; some sort of sniper weapon. That was odd; no mass based weapon should have been able to pierce her Knight's Armor. The bullets had to be individually enchanted… how fascinating.

'I recommend we retreat immediately,' Spriggan said sharply as he dodged another bullet. 'The one in white is a powerful enemy; not one any of you can fight in your injured states. My Lady can heal your wounded, but she can't save the dead. With luck, they will too battered to pursue.'

For a moment, Signum considered refusing, but in that moment a third enemy appeared: the orange-furred beast-woman. Now, if one counted the white knight's construct, there were four enemies for two Wolkenritter and one ally. Worse, Vita was too badly injured to fight, and they couldn't leave her undefended… '…Retreat…' she said mentally, reaching out and grabbing Vita's arm and pulling her along as they flew away.

Thankfully, it seemed the fairy was right that the enemy wasn't willing to chase them. Their leader did, however, have some parting words.

"**This. Is. Not. Over.**"

* * *

Zobek stood silently atop the skyscraper, his inhumanly sharp eyes watching the goings on. The barrier dropped, allowing the cluster of knights to join with the fairy lady, who quickly covered them in a glamour and got to work healing the smallest knight as the group flew away. Meanwhile, the warriors from Earth were gathering up their own injured and retreating behind the houses wards.

Leaning on his hands, the man's mouth was completely covered, which meant the only hint of his thoughts came from the slight glint in his eyes.

"The curtain falls on the first act," he breathed. "The conflict is set, and the actors are in place for the rise towards the inevitable climax." As he vanished, his voice echoed slightly in the wind.

"_Everything is proceeding according to plan."_

_AN: Well, that's the first major battle out of the way. I hope I struck a good balance between the two sides: I don't want either to completely outclass the other. How do you think I did? _

_And if you're wondering what kind of rifle Hammer was using: it's a fifty-caliber Barrett M82 with bullets enchanted to pierce magical defenses. Anything less and Signum probably wouldn't have even noticed._

_Edit: I followed MangamanZX's advise and used the names on the wiki, even though they're Japanese. She's special (read, the best Nanoha character).  
_


End file.
